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🧬 Biological Classification (Kingdom to Species)Nipponopelta yezoensis

Kingdom

Animalia

Phylum

Chordata

Class

Ornithischia

Order

Family

Nodosauridae

Genus

Nipponopelta

Species

Nipponopelta yezoensis

Ornithischia❔ Diet unknown

Nipponopelta

Nipponopelta yezoensis (Nipponopelta · Nipponopelta)

🛡️ Conservation Status (IUCN Red List)FOSSIL (Extinct Fossil)

Known only from fossils. The IUCN Red List assesses only species extant since 1500 CE, so fossil taxa are not assigned a category.

Geological Era

Late Cretaceous (~100.5 MYA)

Diet

No data

Length · Height

No data · No data

Mass · Top Speed

No data · No data

Habitat & Fossil Locality

Discovered in the mountains of Yubari, Hokkaido; possibly from Late Cretaceous Cenomanian strata about 100 million years old

💡 Everyday Comparisons for Size, Mass & Speed

💡 The Mikasa City Museum in Hokkaido notes that visitors can see this fossil in its fossil exhibition hall.
💡 Because the genus name Nipponopelta means 'shield of Japan,' the name alone evokes an armored dinosaur.

Reference standards: coach bus ~12 m, mid-size car ~4.9 m, compact car ~1 t, basketball hoop 3.05 m, credit card 8.56 cm.

#니포노펠타#Nipponopelta yezoensis

📖 1. Overview

Nipponopelta yezoensis (genus Nipponopelta) was the first armored dinosaur (nodosaurid) from Japan to receive a formal scientific name. Its name means 'shield of Japan found in Hokkaido.'

🦴 2. Anatomy & Morphology

It belongs to Nodosauridae, a family of armored dinosaurs with prominent shoulder spines. Because the surrounding rock could not be removed any further, the inside of the skull was examined using CT scans.

🔍 3. Fossil Record & Paleoecology

Discovered in the mountains of Yubari in 1995, the fossil has been kept at the Mikasa City Museum. A paper identifying it as a nodosaurid appeared in 2005, and Hokkaido University researchers later named it as a new genus and species.