Dyoplosaurus

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Dyoplosaurus
Fossil range: Late Cretaceous
Conservation status
Extinct (fossil)
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Sauropsida
Superorder: Dinosauria
Order: Ornithischia
Suborder: Thyreophora
Infraorder: Ankylosauria
Genus: Dyoplosaurus
Parks, 1924

Dyoplosaurus (meaning "double-armored lizard") is a name given to a genus of ankylosaurid dinosaur. It lived during the Late Cretaceous in what is now the Red Deer River in Alberta, Canada and was named by William A. Parks in 1924.

Dyoplosaurus was 20 to 30 feet (6 to 7 meters) long and about 5.8 feet (1.7 meters) wide, with a skull measuring 14 inches (35 centimeters) across. Like most other ankylosaurids, it had an armored body and bony club on the end of its tail. The club was composed of four large bones fused together.

Most have speculated that Dyoplosaurus is actually an incorrectly-named Euoplocephalus; however, Euoplocephalus specimens feature large spikes on their tail-clubs, and Dyoplosaurus' do not. Despite this they are now generally assumed to be the same species and thus, former Dyoplosaurs are identified as Euoplocephalus acutosquameus.

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