NAME: Meaning - Scutellosaurus means "little shield lizard"
Pronounced - skoo-TEL-o-SAWR-us
Named By - Edwin H. Colbert
When Named - 1981
DIET: Herbivore (plant-eater)
SIZE: Length - 4 ft (1.2 m) long
Height - 18 inches (46 cm) tall at the hips
Weight - 22 pounds (10 kg)
WHEN IT LIVED: Early Jurassic period, about 208-200 million years ago
WHERE IT LIVED: Fossils have been found in Arizona, USA, North America.
FOSSILS: Two partial skeletons have been found, including hundreds of scutes (bony plates of armor).
CLASSIFICATION: Kingdom Animalia (animals)
Phylum Chordata (having a hollow nerve chord ending in a brain)
Class Archosauria (diapsids with socket-set teeth, etc.)
Order Ornithischia - beaked, bird-hipped dinosaurs that were plant-eaters
Suborder Thyreophora - armored dinosaurs
Genus Scutellosaurus
Species S. lawleri (type species named by Colbert, 1981)

INTERESTING
FACTS: Scutellosaurus had hundreds of small bony armored plates (six different types of scutes) running along its back and tail. It had a long tail and a long body. Its thin hind legs were much longer than the front legs. It was a semi-bipedal animal: it could walk on two or four legs.