Nodosauridae

Nodosauridae is a family of ankylosaurian dinosaurs known from the Late Jurassic to the Late Cretaceous periods in what is now Asia, Europe, North America, and possibly South America. While traditionally regarded as a monophyletic clade as the sister taxon to the Ankylosauridae, some analyses recover it as a paraphyletic grade leading to the ankylosaurids.

Nodosauridae

Zach Tirrell from Plymouth, USA · CC BY-SA 2.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Sits inside
EuankylosauriaPBDB
Diet
herbivorePBDB, for Ornithischia
Life habit
ground dwelling, gregariousPBDB, for Ornithischia
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Ornithischia
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Ornithischia

Time the record covers

At least 72 million years on record.

The record covers at least 145.06 Mya to 72.2 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 154.8 Mya to 66 Mya.

Late Jurassic — about 4 of 273 occurrencesLate JurassicEarly Cretaceous — about 89 of 273 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 179 of 273 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 0 of 273 occurrences157–153 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences153–150 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences150–147 Mya — about 1 occurrence147–144 Mya — about 2 occurrences144–141 Mya — about 2 occurrences141–138 Mya — about 2 occurrences138–135 Mya — about 7 occurrences135–132 Mya — about 6 occurrences132–129 Mya — about 2 occurrences129–126 Mya — about 2 occurrences126–123 Mya — about 9 occurrences123–120 Mya — about 7 occurrences120–117 Mya — about 5 occurrences117–113 Mya — about 5 occurrences113–110 Mya — about 8 occurrences110–107 Mya — about 8 occurrences107–104 Mya — about 11 occurrences104–101 Mya — about 13 occurrences101–98 Mya — about 9 occurrences98–95 Mya — about 8 occurrences95–92 Mya — about 4 occurrences92–89 Mya — about 2 occurrences89–86 Mya — about 3 occurrences86–83 Mya — about 14 occurrences83–80 Mya — about 26 occurrences80–77 Mya — about 26 occurrences77–73 Mya — about 26 occurrences73–70 Mya — about 27 occurrences70–67 Mya — about 27 occurrences67–64 Mya — about 11 occurrences145.06 Mya72.2 Mya157 Mya64 Mya

273 occurrences of Nodosauridae on record, most of them in the Late Cretaceous. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

273 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

101 formations

Cloverly — 45.49°N, 108.52°WCloverly — 44.54°N, 108.01°WCloverly — 45.44°N, 108.08°WCloverly — 45.42°N, 108.18°WCloverly — 45.12°N, 108.71°WCloverly — 45.36°N, 108.81°WCloverly — 44.69°N, 108.24°WCloverly — 44.98°N, 108.32°WCloverly — 45.45°N, 108.10°WCloverly — 45.38°N, 108.29°WCloverly — 45.41°N, 108.04°WCloverly — 46.32°N, 109.71°WCloverly — 45.26°N, 108.41°WCloverly — 44.51°N, 107.90°WCloverly — 44.50°N, 107.82°WOldman — 49.10°N, 110.94°WOldman — 49.08°N, 110.68°WOldman — 49.16°N, 110.72°WOldman — 49.28°N, 112.20°WDinosaur Park — 50.73°N, 111.53°WDinosaur Park — 50.78°N, 111.50°WDinosaur Park — 50.74°N, 111.56°WCedar Mountain — 38.83°N, 109.57°WCedar Mountain — 38.72°N, 109.69°WCedar Mountain — 39.16°N, 110.86°WCedar Mountain — 38.76°N, 109.74°WCedar Mountain — 39.18°N, 110.11°WCedar Mountain — 38.85°N, 109.56°WCedar Mountain — 38.90°N, 110.33°WOjo Alamo — 36.31°N, 108.03°WOjo Alamo — 36.24°N, 108.89°WOjo Alamo — 36.29°N, 108.10°WWessex — 50.62°N, 1.38°WWessex — 51.10°N, 0.45°WWessex — 50.65°N, 1.16°WWessex — 50.66°N, 1.48°WWessex — 50.67°N, 1.13°WAguja — 28.94°N, 103.37°WAguja — 28.92°N, 103.34°WAguja — 29.00°N, 103.82°WTwo Medicine — 48.96°N, 112.66°WTwo Medicine — 48.65°N, 112.97°WTwo Medicine — 48.91°N, 112.64°WTwo Medicine — 48.65°N, 112.35°WAguja — 29.23°N, 103.57°WAguja — 29.16°N, 103.16°WAguja — 29.17°N, 103.35°WAguja — 29.29°N, 103.61°WLance — 41.57°N, 108.67°WLance — 45.67°N, 101.48°WLance — 43.28°N, 104.38°WLance — 43.49°N, 104.46°WGrünbach — 47.82°N, 16.24°EForemost — 50.07°N, 111.14°WForemost — 49.13°N, 110.87°WForemost — 49.60°N, 111.00°WNiobrara — 38.75°N, 100.21°WNiobrara — 39.55°N, 99.39°WNiobrara — 38.68°N, 100.28°WNiobrara — 38.88°N, 100.13°WTunbridge Wells Sand — 51.09°N, 0.17°WTunbridge Wells Sand — 51.09°N, 0.30°WFerris — 41.94°N, 106.88°WFerris — 41.95°N, 106.89°WSebeş — 46.04°N, 23.52°ESebeş — 45.99°N, 23.59°EWadhurst Clay — 50.86°N, 0.44°EWadhurst Clay — 51.86°N, 0.44°EWadhurst Clay — 50.84°N, 0.48°EKirtland — 36.27°N, 108.17°WKirtland — 36.51°N, 108.32°WRâul Mare — 45.57°N, 22.87°EVitoria — 42.66°N, 2.63°WHell Creek — 47.07°N, 106.92°WHell Creek — 45.50°N, 103.10°WHell Creek — 45.00°N, 103.19°WDenver — 39.79°N, 105.02°WDenver — 39.91°N, 105.15°WMorrison — 41.97°N, 106.29°WMorrison — 39.32°N, 110.69°WMorrison — 41.88°N, 105.89°WFruitland/Kirtland — 36.34°N, 108.07°WFruitland/Kirtland — 36.28°N, 108.26°WFruitland/Kirtland — 36.10°N, 107.85°W

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The named rock units Nodosauridae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 77 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 22 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Nodosauridae and its relatives

Late Cretaceous

Where Nodosauridae and its relatives were recorded in the Late Cretaceous.

Found in the same rock

989 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 256 sites for Nodosauridae, and this reads 240 of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

165 references

Each of the 273 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. 153 further references are not listed. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content3

Picture of Nodosauridae

Credit
Zach Tirrell from Plymouth, USA
Licence
CC BY-SA 2.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

Structured light scan

Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Nodosauridae indet. · dmnh:epv:137000

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution-NonCommercial
Commercial use
the licence does not allow it

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itEuankylosauria through timeFormations of the Late CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Marsh 1890)