| Sauroplites | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Reptilia |
| Clade: | Dinosauria |
| Clade: | †Ornithischia |
| Clade: | †Thyreophora |
| Clade: | †Ankylosauria |
| Genus: | †Sauroplites Bohlin, 1953 |
| Species: | †S. scutiger |
| Binomial name | |
| †Sauroplites scutiger Bohlin, 1953 | |
Sauroplites (meaning "saurian hoplite") is agenus of herbivorousankylosauriandinosaur from the EarlyCretaceous ofChina.
In 1930, the Swedish paleontologistAnders Birger Bohlin during the Swedish-Chinese expeditions ofSven Hedin discovered an ankylosaurian fossil nearTebch inInner Mongolia.[1]
Thetype speciesSauroplites scutiger was named and described by Bohlin in 1953. The generic name is derived from Greeksauros orsaura, "lizard", andhoplites, "hoplite, armed foot soldier". Thespecific name isNeo-Latin for "shield bearer", in reference to the body armour.[1]
At first generally accepted as valid, even though a diagnosis had originally not been provided,[2]Sauroplites was later often considered anomen dubium because it is based on fragmentary material.[3] Some believed it might actually be a specimen of another ankylosaur,Shamosaurus. However, in 2014Victoria Megan Arbour discovered a clear unique trait,autapomorphy: the sacral or pelvic shield shows rosettes with a large central osteoderm surrounded by a single ring of smaller scutes. Other species have multiple or irregular rings. She concluded thatSauroplites was a validtaxon.[2]
The specimens were not given an inventory number and are today lost, though some casts are present in theAmerican Museum of Natural History as specimen AMNH 2074.[2] They were found in a layer of theZhidan Group, probably dating from theBarremian toAptianstages. The carcass had been deposited on its back and the bones had been eroded away, apart from some ribs and perhaps a piece of anischium, leaving parts of the body armour in a largely articulated position.[1]
The large central osteoderms of the rosettes are rather flat and have a diameter of ten centimetres. More to the front oval osteoderms, with an asymmetric low keel, cover the back, with a length of up to forty centimetres. Thirty centimetre osteoderms cover the sides.[1]
Bohlin placedSauroplites in theAnkylosauridae.[1] However, Arbour (2014) considered it possible that it was a member of theNodosauridae in view of the possession of a sacral shield consisting of fused rosettes which is unknown with unequivocal ankylosaurids, even though nodosaurid remains from Asia are rare and contentious. In acladistic analysis she performed,Sauroplites was recovered as a nodosaurid.[2]
In 2018, Rivera-Sylva and colleagues suggested thatSauroplites belonged to a clade of basal nodosaurids that also containedDongyangopelta andMymoorapelta, Their cladogram is shown below:[4]
| Nodosauridae |
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