Nodocephalosaurus

Name:

Nodocephalosaurus (Greek for "knob-headed lizard"); pronounced NO-doe-SEFF-ah-low-SORE-us

Habitat:

Woodlands of North America

Historical Period:

Late Cretaceous (80-70 million years ago)

Size and Weight:

About 20 feet long and 2 tons

Diet:

Plants

Distinguishing Characteristics:

Knobby, bony protrusions on head

About Nodocephalosaurus:

All we know of this ankylosaur (armored dinosaur) is based on a single skull, and an incomplete one at that. But based on where a fossil is found, its similarity to the bones of other known genuses of dinosaurs, and the age of the sediments where it was dug up, paleontologists can work wonders--so we have a pretty good idea of what Nodocephalosaurus looked like.

The odd thing about the North American Nodocephalosaurus is that its knobby skull has more in common with Asian ankylosaurs. However, in the late Cretaceous, these two continents were connected by a land bridge, so migration back and forth would have been fairly common (at least on million-year timescales).