page_title: Struthiosaurinae
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Struthiosaurinae / Classification / History
caption_attribution_description: English: fossil humerus of Struthiosaurus occitanicus, an extinct nodosaur
context_page_description: Struthiosaurinae is a subfamily of ankylosaurian dinosaurs from the Cretaceous of Europe. It is defined as "the most inclusive clade containing Europelta but not the North American Cedarpelta, Peloroplites, Sauropelta or Edmontonia" while being reinstated for a newly recognized clade of basal nodosaurids. Struthiosaurinae appeared at about exactly the same time as the North American subfamily Nodosaurinae. Struthiosaurines range all across the Cretaceous, the oldest genus being Europelta at an age of 112 Ma and the youngest being Struthiosaurus at about 85–66 Ma.
  It was originally mentioned by Franz Nopcsa in 1923 as a subfamily of Acanthopholidae, along with the previously defined Acanthopholinae. The family has gone through many taxonomic revisions since it was defined by Nopcsa in 1902. It is now recognized as a junior synonym of the family Nodosauridae. The subfamily now includes the genera Anoplosaurus, Europelta, Hungarosaurus, and Struthiosaurus, designated as the type genus.
context_section_description: Baron Franz Nopcsa, in 1902, proposed a new grouping of dinosaurs, Acanthopholididae, a clade of lightly-built thyreophorans. He included in it the genera Acanthopholis, Polacanthus, Syngonosaurus, Struthiosaurus, and possibly Nodosaurus. Soon after, he also added Priodontognathus and Palaeoscincus. He considered Acanthopholididae to be the sister clade to Stegosauridae, and also stated that it might include Hylaeosaurus, which he found had most of the characteristics of the family. Later, in 1915, he rearranged the species included in it. The genera that were later included were Acanthopholis (=Anoplosaurus), Polacanthus, Stegopelta, Stegoceras, and Struthiosaurus. Along with Ankylosaurus, Acanthopholididae was defined to form a subfamily of Nodosauridae. In 1923 he divided up the family into two subfamilies without comment. These two subfamilies were named Acanthopholinae and Struthiosaurinae.
  In the same year, he corrected the subgroups of Thyreophora. He placed Acanthopholididae, Stegosauridae and Ceratopsidae together inside the group. Five years later, he corrected the name of the family to Acanthopholidae, which is now the correct spelling. In the same publication, he also changed the genera included. He assigned Hylaeosaurus, Stegoceras, Struthiosaurus, and Troodon inside it but moved Stegopelta and Ankylosaurus into the family Ankylosauridae. Nopcsa then downgraded the phylogenetic rank of Acanthopholidae to make it a subfamily inside Nodosauridae. The clade was defined to include Ankylosaurus and Acanthopholinae. Inside Acanthopholinae he placed Acanthopholis, Hylaeosaurus, Rhodanosaurus, Struthiosaurus, and Troodon. Now considered as an artificial grouping, it was defined to include dinosaur taxa now considered to be polacanthids, a pachycephalosaur and Acanthopholis, a genus that is widely considered to be dubious. Acanthopholidae and Acanthopholinae are now dubious groups since the validity of Acanthopholis has changed.
caption: Humerus of Struthiosaurus
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