Denversaurus

Denversaurus (meaning "Denver lizard") is a kind of armored dinosaur that lived a long time ago, near the end of the time called the Late Cretaceous. It was found in what is now Western North America. This dinosaur belonged to a group known as nodosaurids, which were known for having heavy armor on their bodies to protect them from other creatures.

Even though some scientists once thought Denversaurus was just another name for a different dinosaur called Edmontonia, more recent studies show that it is its own special type of dinosaur. This helps us learn more about the different kinds of dinosaurs that lived during that time. Denversaurus is a fascinating example of how scientists study fossils to understand the past.

It is not to be confused with Denver the Last Dinosaur, an animated TV series.

Discovery and naming

In 1986, scientists Kenneth Carpenter and Brent Breithaupt studied a dinosaur bone they found in South Dakota. They thought it might be a type of dinosaur called Edmontonia.

Later, in 1988, scientist Robert Thomas Bakker decided this dinosaur was different enough to give it its own name. He called it Denversaurus schlessmani, after the Denver Museum of Natural History in Denver, Colorado. This name honored Lee E. Schlessman, a person who helped support the museum.

Some scientists argued about whether Denversaurus was truly its own dinosaur type. But more recent studies suggest it is a real and special kind of dinosaur, closely related to Edmontonia.

Description

In 2010, a scientist named Gregory S. Paul estimated that Denversaurus was about 6 metres (20 feet) long and weighed around 3 tonnes.

Another scientist, Robert T. Bakker, noted that Denversaurus looked different from related dinosaurs because its skull was wider at the back and its eye sockets were positioned more toward the rear. In 2015, Michael Burns added that Denversaurus shared some features with Panoplosaurus, like special shapes on its skull, but had a wider snout than its relative.

Classification

In 1988, a scientist named Bakker thought Denversaurus belonged to a group called Edmontoniidae, which he believed was closely related to another group called Nodosauridae. But later studies did not support this idea. Today, scientists believe Denversaurus is a type of nodosaurid dinosaur, which is part of the ankylosaur group. Some think it may have come from another species called E. longiceps, and one study found it to be closely related to Panoplosaurus.