1. A really, really old noder.
2. A noder who remembers E1.
Alright, now that the obligatory pun is out of the way...
Not much has been found of this dinosaur, which takes its name from its bumpy form of bone plate armour and was first classified in 1889. Remains have been discovered in Kansas, Wyoming and New Mexico. It's existence has been dated to between 70 and 110 million years ago, in the middle and lower Cretaceous, though this range might be narrowed down by future discoveries. A dinosaur named Hierosaurus was later reclassified as Nodosaurus. Dacentrurus, Stegopelta, Niobrarasaurus and Struthiosaurus were all, at one time or the other, identified as Nodosaurus before being reclassified. It seems that this "lizard" is easily confused with others, which is more the norm than the exception with nodosaurids.
Nodosaurus textilis, the type species of the genus, is thought to have been around 5.50 m (17') in length. It was a quadrupedal
herbivore with a toothless beak and looked similar in shape to other, well-known herbivorous dinosaurs with short necks and legs. It's speculated
that Nodosaurus would crouch when threatened, leaving a predator with nothing but its formidable armour (armour plates may have weighed as much as 30 kg) to deal with, but lacked the defensive tail spike of the ankylosaurs. It may have had shoulder or side spikes but not sufficient remains have been found to say for sure. Nodosaurus was similar to Panoplosaurus but smaller and, indeed, was on the low end of both the size and the brain mass spectrum for its day and age.
Order: Ornithischia
Suborder: Thyreophora
Infraorder: Ankylosauria
Family: Nodosauridae
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