Before palaeontologists in Argentina identified Saltasaurus ('Salta lizard') in 1980, they had assumed that its bony armour, long known from fossil finds in their country, had belonged to aiikylosaurs, for these were thought to be the only dinosaurs with armour.

The discovery of Saltasaurus proved that some sauropods grew armour too. Close-packed bony nodules and ridged, bony plates as big as a human palm fortified its back and sides. A fairly small sauropod, Saltasaurus had stocky limbs, a sturdy tail tapering to a slender, diplodocid-like whiplash, and distinctively shaped vertebrae characteristic of the titanosaurids.

Like other sauropods, Saltasaurus would have walked on land and could have raised its long neck to feed on vegetation out of reach of smaller herbivores. This titanosaurid may also have been able to rear up on its hind limbs, supporting its body with its tall, in order to reach even less accessible sources of food.

Saltasaurus's relatively small size made it more vulnerable than larger sauropods to attack by big carnivorous dinosaurs. But any animal that tried to leap upon Saltasaurus's back would have stubbed its claws and snapped off teeth when it tried to sink them into the rock-hard armour in Saltasaurus's tough hide.

Location: Argentina, Uruguay

Diet: Plants

Size: Length 12m

Classification:

Family Titanosauridae

Infraorder Sauropoda

Suborder Sauropodomorpha

Order Saurischia

Time (million years ago): 73