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| Nodosaurids Fossil range: Cretaceous |
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 Life restoration of the nodosaurid Edmontonia.
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Nodosauridae is a family of ankylosaurian dinosaurs, from the Cretaceous Period of what are now North America, Asia, Australia, Antarctica and Europe.
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Characteristics
Diagnostic characteristics for the Nodosauridae include the following: supraorbital boss rounded protuberance, occipital condyle derived from only the basioccipital and ornamentation present on the premaxilla. There is a fourth ambiguous character: the acromion is a knob-like process. All nodosaurids, like other ankylosaurs, may be described as medium-sized to large, heavily-built quadrapedal herbivorous dinosaurs, possessing small denticulate teeth and parasagittal rows of osteoderms (a type of armour) on the dorsolateral surfaces of the body.
Taxonomy
Classification
The family Nodosauridae was erected by Othniel Charles Marsh in 1890, and anchored on the genus Nodosaurus.
- Infraorder Ankylosauria
- Family Nodosauridae
- Acanthopholis (United Kingdom, Western Europe)
- Animantarx (Utah, Western North America)
- Anoplosaurus (England, Northwestern Europe)
- Edmontonia (Alberta, Western North America)
- Hungarosaurus (Hungary, Central-Southern Europe)
- Liaoningosaurus (Liaoning Province, Northeastern China)
- Niobrarasaurus (Kansas, Western North America)
- Nodosaurus (Wyoming and Kansas, Western North America)
- Panoplosaurus (Montana and Alberta, Western North America)
- Pawpawsaurus (Texas, Western North America)
- Sauropelta (Wyoming and Montana, Western North America)
- Silvisaurus (Kansas, Western North America)
- Stegopelta (Wyoming, Western North America)
- Struthiosaurus (Central-Southern Europe)
- Texasetes (Texas, Western North America)
- Zhejiangosaurus (Zhejiang Province, Eastern China)
- Zhongyuansaurus (Henan Province, Central China)
- Family Nodosauridae
Phylogeny
The clade Nodosauridae was first defined by Paul Sereno in 1998 as "all ankylosaurs closer to Panoplosaurus than to Ankylosaurus," a definition followed by Vickaryous, Maryanska, and Weishampel in 2004. Vickaryous et al. considered two genera of nodosaurids to be of uncertain placement (incertae sedis): Struthiosaurus and Animantarx, and considered the most primitive member of the Nodosauridae to be Cedarpelta.1
References
- ^ Vickaryous, M. K., Maryanska, T., and Weishampel, D. B. (2004). Chapter Seventeen: Ankylosauria. in The Dinosauria (2nd edition), Weishampel, D. B., Dodson, P., and Osmólska, H., editors. University of California Press.
- Carpenter, K. (2001). "Phylogenetic analysis of the Ankylosauria." In Carpenter, K., (ed.) 2001: The Armored Dinosaurs. Indiana University Press, Bloomington & Indianapolis, 2001, pp. xv-526
- Osi, Attila (2005). Hungarosaurus tormai, a new ankylosaur (Dinosauria) from the Upper Cretaceous of Hungary. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 25(2):370-383, June 2003.
