Gargoyleosaurus Characteristics

Gargoyleosaurus measured around 10 feet (3 - 4 metres) in length, 3.3 feet (1 metre) in height and would have weighed more than a ton. Its triangular-shaped skull measured only 29 centimetres in length and may have weighed as much as a ton alone. Gargoyleosaurus had 4 short legs and its body was covered in armour consisting of hollow oval-shaped bony plates. It also had 2 shoulder spines and spikes running down each side of its body. Gargoyleosaurus had a long, stiff tail that was also covered on armour. Its teeth lined the upper and lower surface of its narrow beak. Other Ankylosaurs only had teeth on the lower surface. Their hind legs were slightly longer than the forelimbs and this dinosaur moved around relatively slowly, close to the ground, on all 4 legs.

Gargoyleosaurus was an ankylosaur, whose intelligence (as measured by its relative brain to body weight, or EQ) was low among the dinosaurs. Gargoyleosaurus was the first true ankylosaur although it had no club tail. The whole point of ankylosaurs was to present as unappetizing a meal as possible to predators who had to flip these plant-eaters on their backs if they wanted to inflict a mortal wound.

Gargoyleosaurus was a herbivore, a plant-eater. It ate low-lying plant material like cycads, ginkgos, conifers, ferns and horse-tail rushes.

Much of the skull and skeleton of the Gargoyleosaurus has been recovered. Gargoyleosaurus was found in the Morrison Formation, Bone Cabin Quarry, Albany County, Wyoming, USA, North America. The original fossil (the holotype) was found by J. Parker and T. Pinegar (hence the species name, G. parkpini). Gargoyleosaurus was described in 1998 by Kenneth Carpenter et al.