Sauropelta edwardsorum
"Nell and Tom Edwards' lizard shield"

Whereas the frills and horns of ceratopsian dinosaurs seem to have been mainly used for display, there is little doubt that their distant cousins the ankylosaurs were equipped for combat and defense. Sauropelta, a nodosaur of the subfamily Panoplosaurinae, was no exception. While it lacked the distinctive mace-like tail club of it's ankylosaurid relatives, Sauropelta sported equally effective nodosaur armor. Unlike many ankylosaurids, nodosaurids typically sported large, laterally-projecting spikes along the neck, shoulders, and tail. The armor of Sauropelta is particularly well preserved, showing heavy back armor consisting of small conical nodes in rows amongst smaller, pebble-like armor plates. The tank-like armor of ankylosaurs even covered the head, and even the eye lids were armored!

Sauropelta is known from a relatively long time span, the Aptian to Cenomanian ages of the middle Cretaceous, and has been found in Montana, Utah, and Wyoming. At 8 meters long (25ft) Sauropelta probably had little to fear from predators, which would have included dromaeosaurs like Deinonychus. Sauropelta would have shared it's environment with a variety of other small theropods, including primitive oviraptorosaurs like those featured in the drawing.