Lightly armoured ('limb lizard') was a herbivore no longer than a car. It had a small head on a neck that was relatively long for an armoured dinosaur, and a long, heavy body that was highest at the hips and underpinned by four sturdy limbs. Bony tendons probably strengthened and stiffened the tail. The hipbones and armoured skin recall those of the primitive North American omithischlan Scutellosaurus. The teeth resemble those of stegosaurs.

Above all, the rows of ridged, bony plates and studs running down the neck, back, and tail seem prototypes for the more formidable defences of the ankylosaurs. Scelidosaurus might have been an ancestor of these fellow thyreophorans.

Scelidosaurus ambled slowly on all fours through a leafy landscape, stopping frequently to shear off low-growing soft-leafed plants or juicy fruits with its narrow beak. With less complex teeth and jaws than later ornithischlans, it would have chewed with simple up-and-down jaw movements. Young individuals perhaps added extra protein to their diet by eating insects.

Some Scelidosaurus fossil bones are preserved in marine sediments, prompting one authority to think that Scelidosaurus was amphibious. More probably, these creatures lived on riverbanks, and sometimes drowned, perhaps when the river overflowed. The corpses might then have been carried out to sea, to be buried and preserved.

Location: USA, Tibet, England

Diet: Low-growing plants

Size: Length 4m

Classification:

Family Scelidosauridae

Suborder Thyreophora

Order Ornithischia

Time (million years ago): 200