Europelta
"Europe shield"
- Lived
- 113 to 110 million years ago, Early Cretaceous
- Diet
- Herbivore
- Group
- Ankylosaurs, Nodosauridae
- Found in
- Spain
- Named by
- Kirkland et al. 2013
Where its fossils were found
The evidence
Today
110 million years ago
Habitat
Freshwater wetlands in what is now Spain supported trees and other plants. Proa lived in the same landscape, along with turtles, crocodilians and fish.
Field notes
About Europelta
What it was like
Europelta was a nodosaur, an armored plant eater with rows of bony plates on its back and no tail club. It is known from two partial skeletons.
It belongs to the struthiosaurines, a branch of nodosaurs that lived only in Europe.
Its world
It lived about 113 to 110 million years ago, in the Early Cretaceous, in what is now northeastern Spain. Its bones come from the Escucha Formation, where it shared the land with the plant eater Proa.
How it was found
Kirkland and colleagues named Europelta in 2013. It was found in a coal mine.
Field gallery
More views of Europelta
Scenes reconstructed from the available fossil evidence.
1 of 2
Lived alongside
Found in the same rock formations
A rock formation can hold fossils laid down millions of years apart, so not every animal here met Europelta.
The evidence
The science behind Europelta
Which parts of the picture come from its own bones, and which come from its relatives.
From its own fossils
- Partial skeletons preserve a skull, backbone, limb bones and many armor plates.
- The skull has a pear-shaped outline when seen from above.
- The armor includes spines, ridged plates and tiny bony pieces that filled the spaces between larger plates.
Borrowed from relatives
- Much of its body comes from its own bones; missing hand bones and parts of the armor layout follow nodosaurs such as Edmontonia.
Still unknown
- The exact arrangement of its armor plates.
- Its skin color.
- Whether it lived in groups.
Discovery timeline
- 2012Same rocksMCDONALD et al.
- 2012Fossil sitesAlcalá et al.
- 2013Named itKirkland et al.
Key papers
The research behind what we know of Europelta
Same rocks
Named Proa from the Escucha Formation, describing a plant eater that shared the region with Europelta.
An unusual new basal iguanodont (Dinosauria: Ornithopoda) from the Lower Cretaceous of Teruel, Spain. Zootaxa 3595
Read the paper : An unusual new basal iguanodont (Dinosauria: Ornithopoda) from the Lower Cretaceous of Teruel, Spain (opens in a new tab)Fossil sites
Reported the fossil-rich layer beneath a coal seam that opened a new window onto the world of Europelta.
A New Lower Cretaceous Vertebrate Bonebed Near Ariño (Teruel, Aragón, Spain); Found and Managed in a Joint Collaboration Between a Mining Company and a Palaeontological Park. Geoheritage 4: 275-286
Read the paper : A New Lower Cretaceous Vertebrate Bonebed Near Ariño (Teruel, Aragón, Spain); Found and Managed in a Joint Collaboration Between a Mining Company and a Palaeontological Park (opens in a new tab)Named it
Described the skeletons and armor of Europelta and proposed a distinct European branch of nodosaurs.
The Basal Nodosaurid Ankylosaur Europelta carbonensis n. gen., n. sp. from the Lower Cretaceous (Lower Albian) Escucha Formation of Northeastern Spain. PLoS ONE 8: e80405
Read the paper : The Basal Nodosaurid Ankylosaur Europelta carbonensis n. gen., n. sp. from the Lower Cretaceous (Lower Albian) Escucha Formation of Northeastern Spain (opens in a new tab)
Close relatives
Other members of Nodosauridae
Sources: Wikidata