Sauropelta
Look at the bony armour on its back and the big spikes by its shoulders. Does it look as though it is wearing a strong protective coat?
Preparing the Sauropelta exhibit.

Look at the bony armour on its back and the big spikes by its shoulders. Does it look as though it is wearing a strong protective coat?

Preparing the Sauropelta exhibit.
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Explore together
This is Sauropelta, a plant-eating armoured dinosaur from Early Cretaceous North America. Look at the bony armour on its back and the big spikes by its shoulders. Does it look as though it is wearing a strong protective coat?
Classification used here: Nodosaurid armoured dinosaur. Fossils assigned to Sauropelta are known from Early Cretaceous (about 115–105 million years ago) and have been found in western North America. The museum uses 5–6 m (about 16–20 ft) as the reference body length and describes the diet as plant-eater. Sauropelta was a nodosaurid, a kind of armoured dinosaur without a tail club. Bony armour covered its low body, and large spikes stood out along its neck and shoulders. In life, the spikes may also have had keratin coverings, making their outline more complex than the bare fossils alone can show.
Leon Made This compiled these research notes from public museum resources and scientific papers while preserving uncertainty in the reconstruction. Last reviewed 2026-08-07.
The code is licensed under AGPL-3.0. Original science writing and project artwork use CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 for non-commercial sharing. The brand policy prevents impersonation, and third-party assets keep their original licences.
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Prehistoric Animal Museum is made and maintained by Leon Made This. Use these addresses to verify the official project and its creator.
More information is available below.
Leon Made This
I’m Leon, a developer and a dad. When my daughter was three, dinosaur chases on television frightened her, so I made a 3D prehistoric animal museum where she could look quietly and listen only when she wanted to.
The museum is free, with no sign-up, adverts or visitor tracking. Finding one interesting detail at a time is plenty.
Official source
Prehistoric Animal Museum is made and maintained by Leon Made This. Use these addresses to verify the official project and its creator.