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We seem to be on a roll with the armor-plated, spiny dinosaurs! Today’s Daily Dinosaur, Edmontonia rugosidens, is just as tough as the other two we have posted, and may have used its massive shoulder spikes to charge at enemies and defend itself. Read more below, or click here to see the other Daily Dinosaurs. |
This image is taken from The Princeton Field Guide to Dinosaurs by Gregory S. Paul. It may not be reproduced elsewhere without permission.
| Edmontonia rugosidens | |
| 6 m (19 ft) TL, 3 tonnes | |
| FOSSIL REMAINS | Several complete skulls and majority of skeletons. |
| ANATOMICAL CHARACTERISTICS | Belly and hip extremely broad. Armor plate covered cheeks, large, forward-directed spikes on flank of neck and shoulder, one spine partly split, no spines on main trunk or hips. |
| AGE | Late Cretaceous, Middle and/or Late Campanian. |
| DISTRIBUTION AND FORMATION | Montana, Alberta?; Upper Two Medicine, possibly middle Dinosaur Park, Judith River. |
| HABITAT | Well-watered, forested floodplain with coastal swamps and marshes and drier upland woodlands. |
| HABITS | May have charged at opponents within species and tyrannosaurids with shoulder spikes, also hunkered down on the belly and used armor to avoid being wounded while using the great breadth of the body to prevent being overturned. |
| NOTES | It is not certain whether this species is known outside the Two Medicine Formation. |
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