English: Life restoration of Panoplosaurus, a nodosaurid ankylosaur from the Late Cretaceous (Campanian stage) of Canada (Alberta).

• Angle: In this restoration, Panoplosaurus is standing with its trunk turned 37 degrees to the left from the viewer, while the head is turned a bit more (72 degrees).
• Body armour: Panoplosaurus were similar to its close relative Edmontonia, but lacked the enlarged shoulder spikes.^[1][2] As the original description of Panoplosaurus^[3] do not contain any restoration of the pattern and arrangement of spikes and scutes, the armour of my current restoration are mostly inspired from the Panoplosaurus drawing used in The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs & Prehistoric Creatures,^[2] with some inspiration from skeletal drawings of Sauropelta and Edmontonia by Gregory S. Paul.^[4] Paul also have a skull drawing and head illustration of Panoplosaurus, ^[4] which I have used as a model for the head armour in my current illustration.
• Limbs: fossil findings indicate the manus of Panoplosaurus possessed at least three digits.^[3] While the closely related Sauropelta retained five manual digits,^[5] ankylosaur researcher Kenneth Carpenter have suggested that Panoplosaurus only possessed three, an interpretation used here. The feet of nodosaurids usually possessed four toes. .^[1]

References

1. ↑ ^{a b} Carpenter K. “Ankylosaurs”. In Farlow J.O. & Brett-Surman M.K. The Complete Dinosaur (Indiana University Press, 1999): p. 307-316
2. ↑ ^{a b} Dixon D. The Complete Illustrated Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs & Prehistoric Creatures (Hermes House, 2011): p. 376
3. ↑ ^{a b} Lambe L.M. (1919). “Description of a new genus and species (Panoplosaurus mirus) of armored dinosaur from the Belly River Beds of Alberta”. Proceedings and transactions of the Royal Society of Canada 3(13): p. 39-50
4. ↑ ^{a b} Paul G.S. Dinosaurs: A Field Guide (London: A & C Black, 2010): p. 237,238
5. ↑ Vickarious M.K., Maryanska T & Weishampel D.B. ”Ankylosaurida”. In Weishampel D.B., Dodson P & Osmolska H. The Dinosauria, 2nd ed. (University of California Press, 2004): p. 363-392

Links

• WitmerLab Collections: Skull of Panoplosaurus
• Review of my Panoplosaurus restoration: Wikipedia:WikiProject Dinosaurs/Image_review (January 2022)