#patagopelta

[roygattero]

Patagopelta cristata, interpreted as a parankylosaur.

Vector illustration, 2025.

First time I screen-record my working process, I posted the video on YouTube and it's the first of a paleoart "series" (so to speak) called "Paleo Vector". It's in spanish.

[a-dinosaur-a-day]

Stegouros vs Patagopelta

Stegouros (left) or Patagopelta (right)?

Stegouros

Patagopelta

Voting ended onMar 9, 2023

Factfiles:

Stegouros elengassen

Artwork by Luis Enrique Pérez López, written by @zygodactylus

Name Meaning: Armored Creature with a Roofed Tail

Time: 74.9 to 71.7 million years ago (Campanian to Maastrichtian stages of the Late Cretaceous) 

Location: Dorotea Formation, Patagonia, Chile 

South America is just where the nonavian dinosaur party is happening these days! Stegouros is another recently described species from this continent, and another weird one - it was an Ankylosaur, but not a Nodosaur or an Ankylosaurid, and more to the point, instead of a tail club it had a series of vertebrae enclosed in osteoderms, in a shape that looked a lot like a macuahuitl - the tail was also very short, shorter than any other Thyreophoran, with flattened vertebrae coming together to form the strange and distinctive shape (similar short vertebrae are known from its relative, Antarctopelta). At around 2 meters long, it was very small for an Ankylosaur, though it had a head that was quite large for its body. It also had inward curving teeth, making them look vaguely hourglass-shaped, though they were also asymmetrical. It had many typical ankylosaur traits, but also some stegosaurian ones such as hollow sides to their vertebrae. Overall, it was very similar in proportions and appearance to Antarctopelta, indicating Antarctopelta may have looked more like Stegouros than previously thought. It had limb bones similar to cursorial Ankylosaurs, indicating Stegouros itself was a fast and efficient mover; and it even had claws shaped like hooves which may have enabled even more efficient running and locomotion. So, yeah. A short big headed ankylosaur built for running with a freaking ax on its tail. That’s normal! Living in the Dorotea Formation, Stegouros probably lived near the coast, alongside different sorts of mammals, fish, bivalves, amphibians, plesiosaurs, turtles, and unnamed dinosaurs such as opposite birds, megaraptors, Unenlagiines, and possible titanosaurs. 

Patagopelta cristata

Artwork by Gabriel Diaz Yantén, written by @zygodactylus

Name Meaning: Crested Patagonian Shield 

Time: 73 to 69 million years ago (Campanian to Maastrichtian stage of the Late Cretaceous)

Location: Allen Formation, Patagonia, Argentina 

Patagopelta is another ankylosaur on our roster, a small nodosaur known from the same environment as Kelumapusaura. One of the smallest known ankylosaurs, it was only about 2 meters long, resembling the dwarf nodosaur Struthiosaurus in overall size. It had crested osteoderms along its neck, making it distinctive in armor from its relatives as well. Along with other North American taxa, such as the hadrosaurs, Patagopelta was part of a first experiment in American biotic interchange, as taxa from both continents bled into the other at the very end of the Cretaceous. In the Allen Formation, Patagopelta lived in a coastal environment of fluvial plains, ephemeral lakes, tidal flats, and estuaries with extreme semiarid seasonality. Evaporites would accumulate in the arid seasons, only to be washed away as the wet season returned. Many dinosaurs are known from this formation: Aeolosaurus, Austroraptor, Bonapartesaurus, Bonapartenykus, Bonatitan, Kelumapusaura, Lamarqueavis, Lapampasaurus, Limenavis, Menucocelsior, Niebla, Panamericansaurus, Pellegrinisaurus, Quilmesaurus, Rocasaurus, and Willinakaqe. In addition, Patagopelta shared its home with pterosaurs such as Aerotitan, tuatarans, plesiosaurs, frogs, and a variety of mammals.

DMM Round One Masterpost

[new-dinosaurs]

Patagopelta cristata Riguetti et al., 2022 (new genus and species)

(Armor plates from the neck of Patagopelta cristata, from Riguetti et al., 2022)

Meaning of name: Patagopelta = Patagonia shield [in Greek]; cristata = crested [in Latin, referencing distinctive crests on its thigh bone and armor plates]

Age: Late Cretaceous (Campanian–Maastrichtian)

Where found: Allen Formation, Río Negro, Argentina

How much is known: Various armor plates, some vertebrae, two femora (thigh bones), and a tooth. It is unknown whether any of these bones belonged to the same individuals, though it is likely that at least two or three individuals are represented.

Notes: Patagopelta was a nodosaurid ankylosaur, a group of armored dinosaurs that often had bony spines along the sides of their neck and body. Several specimens of Patagopelta had been described in previous studies starting in 1996, but were left unnamed. Patagopelta was small for an ankylosaur, estimated as having been slightly more than 2 m long. Even though it lived in South America, phylogenetic analysis suggests that it was closely related to nodosaurids from North America, so it may have descended from North American ancestors that dispersed into South America during the Late Cretaceous.

Reference: Riguetti, F., X. Pereda-Suberbiola, D. Ponce, L. Salgado, S. Apesteguía, S. Rozadilla, and V. Arbour. 2022. A new small-bodied ankylosaurian dinosaur from the Upper Cretaceous of North Patagonia (Río Negro Province, Argentina). Journal of Systematic Palaeontology 20: 2137441. doi: 10.1080/14772019.2022.2137441