Sauropelta

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***Sauropelta*** is a genus of nodosaurid dinosaur that originated from Early Cretaceous North America. The earliest known genus of nodosaurid, as well as one of the most well-understood, *Sauropelta* is unlocked by the Hammond Foundation when players first reach Isla Sorna.

## Characteristics

One of the best-understood nodosaurid (thanks to prolific recovery of remains), *Sauropelta* is easily recognized thanks to the two large spikes that extend from its neck and shoulders and the smaller rows of spines along its neck. It also has a beaked mouth. Due to its large size – measuring eight meters long and weighing around 1.5 tons – *Sauropelta* cannot run at high speeds, so it relies on being able to defend itself from predators; as well as defensive spikes that can be used to repel attackers, it has thick armor covering most of its body – its name translates to "*Lizard Shield*". Unlike others of its type, *Sauropelta* had a flat rather than domed skull. The layout of its back plates limited its neck, shoulder and upper tail movement.

The base genome of *Sauropelta* has a grey body with dark grey armour running down its back.

### Behaviour

*Sauropelta* is an unsociable animal. It lives in pairs and doesn't like other animals around it. It'll fight with other armored dinosaurs, including other *Sauropelta*, if the exhibit is too crowded for its liking.

## Paleontology

The first *Sauropelta* fossils were found by Barnum Brown, an American paleontologist known as "*Mr. Bones*", in 1930. The holotype specimen for Sauropelta was collected as a partial skeleton from the Cloverly Formation in Big Horn County, Montana. Other remains were recovered from nearby locations, and from the Cedar Mountain Formation in Utah. Fossilized footprints have also been found for Sauropelta. However, it wasn't until 1970 that the remains were officially classified as a new genus by fellow paleontologist John Ostrom, after he excavated related fossils from the same location.

Due to the number of recovered *Sauropelta* specimens, it is one of the best-understood nodosaurids. Like all nodosaurs, it had bony armor running from its head to its tail though *Sauropelta* also had unique spikes on its neck. These large spikes may have been an adaptation to ward off predators, such as *Deinonychus* and *Acrocanthosaurus*.

### Paleoecology

*Sauropelta* existed in western North America during the Early Cretaceous period around 120-95 million years ago, living in the Cloverly Formation, which had wide floodplains around rivers that were covered in forests and flowed into a shallow inland sea. Grasses would not evolve until later in the Cretaceous, so *Sauropelta* and other Early Cretaceous herbivores diets would consist of ground-level vegetation, such as conifers and cycads. It lived alongside a wide variety of dinosaurs, including the large ornithopod *Tenontosaurus*, the smaller ornithopod *Zephyrosaurus*, rare titanosaur sauropods, the dromaeosaurid theropod *Deinonychus*, and the large theropod *Acrocanthosaurus*.

The *Sauropelta* in game can be found in the Morrison Formation, despite the fact that *Sauropelta* appeared almost 38 million years after the youngest layers of the Morrison, likely a reference to similar dinosaurs found at the Morrison Formation such as *Gargoyleosaurus* and *Mymoorapelta*.

## Available genomes

 Cloverly Formation | ★★★★★★★★★★
 Morrison Formation | ★★★★★★★★★

## Skins

 NULL

 ALPINE

 ARID

 STEPPE

 WETLAND

 WOODLAND

## Trivia

* *Sauropelta* was the twenty-first dinosaur to receive a Species Profile on June 1, 2018. Before its official confirmation, *Sauropelta* was first mentioned in an official tweet.
* *Sauropelta* is one of the few dinosaurs in the game with no prior depictions in the franchise's media.
* *Sauropelta* is the least social herbivore in the game.
	+ *Sauropelta* also has the lowest maximum population of any dinosaur, well below the maximum of even the *Indominus rex*.
* *Sauropelta* is the fourth largest ankylosaur in the game, after *Ankylosaurus*, *Euoplocephalus*, and *Nodosaurus*.

## Gallery

VideosSpecies Profile - Sauropelta
Images
## References

1. ↑ Frontier Developments. (June 1, 2018). *Species Profile - Sauropelta* [Video]. YouTube. Retrieved October 26, 2019.
2. ↑ JW Evolution [@JW\_Evolution]. (April 27, 2018). "The Kentrosaurus, much like the Sauropelta, is a beaked Herbivore who can be spotted in Jurassic World Evolution this summer!" [Tweet]. Twitter.