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HYLAEOSAURUS "Woodland Lizard"

ANATOMY
Hylaeosaurus (meaning "woodland lizard") was an armored, quadrupedal, plant-eating dinosaur from the early Cretaceous period, about 135-119 million years ago. It looked a lot like its more advanced relative Ankylosaurus, but didn't have the bony nodes at the end of its tail or horns on its head. Hylaeosaurus may be the same as Polacanthus.

It had a toothless horny beak and leaf-shaped cheek. Hylaeosaurus was about 13 feet (4 m) long, had short legs, a narrow head with a pointed snout, a long, heavy tail, spikes along its shoulders and sides, and horn-covered oval plates embedded in its skin all over the top of its body. Its entire top side was heavily protected from predators. Only its under-belly was unplated. Flipping it over was the only way to wound it.

WHEN HYLAEOSAURUS LIVED
Hylaeosaurus lived during the early Cretaceous Period, about 135-119 million years ago.

DIET
This huge, heavy reptile was an herbivore (it ate only plants). It had to eat a huge amount of low-lying plant material to sustain itself so its gut must have been very large. It may have had a fermentation compartment to aid in the digestion of the tough plant material, producing prodigious amounts of gas.

INTELLIGENCE
Hylaeosaurus was an ankylosaur, whose intelligence (as measured by its relative brain to body weight, or EQ) was low among the dinosaurs.



LOCOMOTION
Ankylosaur trackways were found in 1996 near Sucre, Bolivia, South America showing that these huge creatures could run at a "decent jog," according to Christian Meyer, a Swiss paleontologist working at the site. Speed estimates are made using the distance between the footprints, the animal's leg length, the pattern of the tracks, and other factors.

DISCOVERY OF FOSSILS
Hylaeosaurus fossils have been found in southeast England. Hylaeosaurus was the third dinosaur to be given a name (although the group "dinosaur" had not been named yet); Hylaeosaurus was named in 1833 by the British paleontologist Gideon A. Mantell.

CLASSIFICATION
Hylaeosaurus belonged to the Order Ornithischia, the Suborder Thyreophora (Enoplosauria), the Ankylosauria (armored, four-legged dinosaurs), and was in the family Nodosauridae (a group of primitive ankylosaurs with no tail clubs; it included Edmontonia, Sauropelta, Acanthopholis, Silvisaurus, Nodosaurus, Panoplosaurus, etc.).

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