A New “Monster” Dinosaur Hits The Record Books in Eastern Utah

Carpenter, Bartlett, Bird and Barrick co-author paper, “ANKYLOSAURS FROM THE PRICE RIVER QUARRIES, CEDAR MOUNTAIN FORMATION (LOWER CRETACEOUS), EAST-CENTRAL UTAH” in the December issue of the Journal of Paleontology introducing a newly discovered species that smashes world records for size as the largest nodosaur ever discovered.

Researchers in the western US have unveiled another gigantic dinosaur and given it a fitting name. Peloroplites cedrimontanus, the “gigantic monster from Cedar Mountain,” tops out as the biggest example ever discovered of the dinosaur group known as nodosaurs.

Kenneth Carpenter, noted research paleontologist and author of “The Armored Dinosaurs,” presented in print a new description of the gigantic tanklike creature in collaboration with staff of the College of Eastern Utah Prehistoric Museum, who discovered the remains at one of their most prolific quarries. Their paper describes the animal as a gigantic contemporary of similar dinosaurs in the family Ankylosauridae, with interesting features such as large fused bony bumps covering its back. With its great size and formidable defenses, an adult Peloroplites would have been nearly invulnerable to predators of its day.

Another massive armored dinosaur, also discovered by the CEU Prehistoric Museum and named Cedarpelta, sheds new light on the relationships among members of the ankylosaur family in North America and Asia. This and the other armored dinosaurs, dating from the middle Cretaceous period, pose new questions about why the family’s diversity occurred at that crucial time in evolutionary history.

The College of Eastern Utah Prehistoric Museum is grateful to these individuals for their dedication to dinosaur discovery and bringing these scientific discoveries to the public.