#ziapelta

Day 29- Ziapelta

By Jack Wood on @thewoodparable

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Name: Ziapelta sanjuanensis

Name Meaning: Zia Shield

First Described: 2014

Described By: Arbour et al. 

Classification: Dinosauria, Ornithischia, Genasauria, Thyreophora, Eurypoda, Ankylosauria, Ankylosauridae, Ankylosaurinae, Ankylosaurini

Ziapelta is an Ankylosaurid from the Kirtland Formation of new Mexico, living about 73 to 77 million years ago, in the Campanian age of the Late Cretaceous. It, like other Ankylosaurids, had extensive osteoderms, including a smooth keel on its deeply curved cheek horn that is separated by an abrupt change from a grainy texture to a smooth one, as well as extensive, large osteoderms on its snout, covering about half of the snout as opposed to the up to 40% amount found in other Ankylosaurids. It had large osteoderms on the upper side of the neck, with rows of osteoderms along its body. It’s size is under some debate as it is uncertain whether or not the original specimen was fully grown; it could be between 4.6 and 6.1 meters long. 

By Sydney Mohr, CC BY 2.5

Ziapelta was found to be closely related to the ankylosaurs most closely related to Ankylosaurus; in the group of the most derived Ankylosaurins with Anodontosaurus, Euoplocephalus, Scolosaurus, and Ankylosaurus. It was not closely related to Nodocephalosaurus, with which it shared an environment, though they were at least near each other on their evolutionary tree. It’s relationship to Nodocephalosaurus and Asian Ankylosaurs indicates that there was an Ankylosaur migration from Asia to North America. Living in the Kirtland Formation, it lived in an alluvial mud and overbank environment, alongside such other dinosaurs as Ahshislepelta, Anasazisaurus, Kritosaurus, Naashoibitosaurus, Nodocephalosaurus, Parasaurolophus, Pentaceratops, Sphaerotholus, Stegoceras, Titanoceratops, Bistahieversor, Ornithomimus, Saurornitholestes, Troodontids, and Tyrannosaurids. 

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ziapelta

Arbour, V. M, & P. J. Currie. 2015. Systematics, phylogeny and palaeobiogeography of the ankylosaurid dinosaurs. Journal of Systematic Palaeontology DOI: 10.1080/14772019.2015.1059985

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