Boulder

boulder is an earth attributed edmontonia and is the Arnold Schwarzenegger of the D-team

## character design

### personality

boulder is quite cranky. he doesn't take kindly to even the simplest of negative comments and tries to act like he could take care of himself, even going so far as to throw himself into danger multiple times to prove he was an independent edmontonia

## anatomy

as an edmontonia, boulder is bulky, broad and tank-like. his length is about 6.6 m (22 ft). In

boulder is small, oval ridged bony plates on his back and head and many sharp spikes along his sides. The four largest spikes jutted out from boulders shoulders on each side, the second of which was split into subspines. boulders skull had a pear-like shape when viewed from above. boulders neck and shoulders were protected by three halfrings made of large keeled plates.

### Distinguishing traits

boulder is somewhat similar to his species close relative *Panoplosaurus*. In top view, boulders snout has more parallel sides. boulders skull armour has a smooth surface. In the palate, the vomer is keeled. The neural arches and neural spines are shorter than those of *Panoplosaurus*. The sacrum proper consists of three sacral vertebrae. In the shoulder girdle, the scapula and coracoid are not fused.

### Skeleton

boulders skull, up to half a metre long, is somewhat elongated with a protruding truncated snout. The snout carried a horny upper beak and the front snout bones, the premaxillae, were toothless. The cutting edge of the upper beak continued into the maxillary tooth rows, each containing fourteen to seventeen small teeth. In each dentary of the lower jaws, eighteen to twenty-one teeth were present. In the sides of the snout large depressions were present, "nasal vestibules", that each possessed two smaller openings. The top of these was a horizontal oval and represented the bony external nostril, the entrance to the nasal cavity, the normal air passage. The more rounded second opening below and obliquely in front, was the entrance to a "paranasal" tract, running along the outer side of the nasal cavity, in a somewhat lower position. there is a presence of multiple openings in the nodosaurid; such structures had already been well established in ankylosaurids. The air tracts are however, much simpler than in the typical ankylosaurid condition, and are not convoluted while lacking bony turbinate bones. The nasal cavity is separated into two halves along the midline by a bone wall. This septum is continued to below by the vomers, which are keeled, the keel featuring a pendulum-shaped appendage. Another similarity with Ankylosauridae is the presence of a secondary bone palate, a possible case of parallel evolution. This has been shown too for *Panoplosaurus*.

The head armour tiles, or *caputegulae*, are smooth. Details differ between the various specimens but all share a large central nasal tile on the snout, bend large "loreal" tiles at the rear snout edges and a large central *caputegula* on the skull roof. The tiles behind the upper eye socket rim in *Edmontonia longiceps* do not stick out as much as in *E. rugosidens*, combined with a more narrow, pointed snout in the former. Some *E. rugosidens* specimens are known that possess a "cheek plate" above the lower jaw. Contrary to that discovered with *Panoplosaurus*, it is "free-floating", not fused with the lower jaw bone.

The vertebral column contains about eight neck vertebrae, about twelve "free" back vertebrae, a "sacral rod" of four fused rear dorsal vertebrae, three sacral vertebrae, two caudosacrals and at least twenty, but probably about forty, tail vertebrae. In the neck the first two vertebrae, the atlas and axis, are fused. In the shoulder girdle, the coracoid has a rectangular profile, in contrast to the more rounded shape with *Panoplosaurus*. Two sternal plates are present, connected to sternal ribs. The forelimb is robust but relatively long.boulders deltopectoral crest of the humerus is gradually rounded. The metacarpus is robust compared to that of *Panoplosaurus*. The hand very likely was tetradactyl, having four fingers.

### Osteoderms

Apart from the head armour, the body was covered with osteoderms, skin ossifications. the configuration of boulders armour is relatively well known, much of it having been discovered in articulation. boulders neck and shoulder region was protected by three cervical halfrings, each consisting of fused rounded rectangular, asymmetrically keeled, bone plates. These halfrings did not have a continuous underlying bone band. The first and second halfrings each had three pairs of segments. Below each lower end of the second halfring a side spike was present, a separate triangular osteoderm pointing obliquely forward. In the third halfring over the shoulders, the two pairs of central segments are bordered on each side by a very large forward-pointing spike that is bifurcated, featuring a secondary point above the main one. A third large spike behind it points more sideways; a smaller fourth one, often connected to the third at the base, is directed obliquely to behind. The row of side spikes is continued to the rear but there the osteoderms are much lower, curving strongly to behind, with the point overhanging the rear edge

Behind the third halfring the back and hip are covered by numerous transverse rows of much smaller oval keeled osteoderms. These are not ordered in longitudinal rows. The front rows have plates oriented along the length of the body, but to the rear the long axis of these osteoderms gradually rotates sideways, their keels ultimately running transversely. Rosettes are lacking. The configuration of the tail armour is unknown. The larger plates of all body parts were connected by small ossicles. Such small round scutes also covered the throat

## abilities

* rock roller: boulder spins and slamms into a large round boulder, sending it rolling at its opponent