Outline: a typical ankylosaur
Aletopelta
"wandering shield"
- Lived
- 84 to 72 million years ago, Late Cretaceous
- Diet
- Herbivore
- Group
- Ankylosaurs, Ankylosauridae
- Found in
- United States
- Named by
- Ford and Kirkland 2001
Where its fossils were found
The evidence
Today
80 million years ago
Field notes
About Aletopelta
What it was like
Aletopelta was an armored plant eater from the ankylosaur family. It is known from a partial skeleton with pieces of its bony armor, including plates that covered its hips.
Its world
It lived in the Late Cretaceous in what is now California. Its bones come from the Point Loma Formation, which formed on the sea floor, so its body probably washed out to sea after death. Very few dinosaurs have been found in California.
How it was found
Ford and Kirkland named it in 2001 from one find. The name refers to how the land where it lived has moved north over millions of years.
Close relatives
Other members of Ankylosauridae
Sources: WikidataNamed in: T. L. Ford and J. I. Kirkland. 2001. Carlsbad ankylosaur (Ornithischia, Ankylosauria): an ankylosaurid and not a nodosaurid. The Armored Dinosaurs. Indiana University Press, Bloomington