Nodosaurids in Detail

    Nodosaurids have three rows of plates on their neck where as the other two families have only two.  The legs of the nodosaurid were not as bulky as the ankylosaurids but it is still believed that nodosaurids stood higher than the ankylosaurids.  The spines on the animal may not have all been used as weapons.  Some are angled backwards, perhaps serving as a visual display to other dinosaurs.  The laterally projecting spines may have done the same thing by making it appear as if the animal was wider than it really was.  The shoulder spines, however, point forward which would make a useful weapon.

This is the partial skeleton of Edmontonia, discovered in Dinosaur Provincial Park, Alberta, Canada Note the lateral spines which are absent with the ankylosaurids.

The following is a list of the different Genus of nodosaurid:  This is only a partial list, more may exist or have been classified incorrectly. (i.e. as polacanthids)

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