moodie: armored cretaceous dinosaur. 267 



several fragments. The proximal and distal ends of one of 

 them are preserved so that a reconstruction is possible. These 

 fragments represent a rather elongate, slender element with 

 the upper surface rounded and the lower surface somewhat flat- 

 tened. The proximal articular surface is widely concave and 

 the distal end is pulley-shaped. It is thus evident that the meta- 

 tarsal is not different from that of other herbivorous dinosaurs. 

 The length of the bone as restored is 150 mm., the breadth of 

 the proximal end is 80 mm., and the height 60 mm. 



The dermal armor consists of small bony scutes, large dermal 

 spines and heavy plates, all of various shapes and sizes. 

 Mingled in with the other bones of the skeleton were more 

 than four score small bony scutes (plate LVII), varying in 

 diameter from 15 to 75 mm. and of various thicknesses from 

 4 to 20 mm. The scutes are all scrobiculate and are for the 

 most part rounded, though some are elongated, one scute be- 

 fore me measuring 60 mm. in length by 30 mm. in breadth. 

 The majority of them possess a ridge asymmetrically placed, 

 which runs nearly the entire length of the scute. Others run 

 up to a point in the center ; others are flat. 



In structure all of the scutes are of a coarsely cancellated 

 character, such as Hulke has described for the scutes occur- 

 ring in Polacanthus. Associated with them were many frag- 

 ments of heavy triangular ribs with which some of the scutes 

 were firmly united. From this fact it would appear probable 

 that the scutes were scattered along the back of the animal an- 

 terior to the great pelvic shield. The elongated scutes re- 

 ferred to above may possibly have been situated on the neural 

 spines of the vertebrae, as in Scelidosaurus (20). The larger 

 scutes, some of which are as large as the palm of one's hand, 

 were very probably located near and anterior to the great 

 pelvic shield. 



Scutes very similar to these described for Stegopelta are 

 found in a number of different armored dinosaurs as well as 

 among the crocodiles. There are really no structural differ- 

 ences between the scutes of Stegopelta herein described and 

 those found in the common Mississippi alligators. The pittings 

 on the Stegopelta scutes are, however, smaller than in the latter. 

 Hulke (21) has described a few scutes belonging to Polacan- 

 thus which resemble the present specimens very much. Lambe 

 (22) has figured three scutes associated with the form Stereo- 



