Scelidiosaurs Slide Show

Nobu Tamura's updated Scelidosaurus

Yesterday I posted an image of a Scelidosaurus illustrated by Nobu Tamura and today is another version of Scelidosaurus by the same illustrator. He has changed the posture slightly, shortening the forelimbs a little and making the hindlimb to forelimb angle slightly deeper. With a slightly smaller head and plates of any kind on its back Scelidosaurus would certainly look very much like a typical stegosaur in the updated posture. The tail is lacking any form of spikes, but it does have smaller dermal nodules all along the tail along the top and two stripes down the side as well as a chevron-like ridge on the ventral side of the tail. While not much of a weapon, the tail could be used to deter predators if it had any moment gaining abilities. Its position and the structure of the skeleton do indicate some ability to move the tail with a little bit of speed and power, much like its descendants in both the Stegosauria and Ankylosauria.

Lyme Regis Museum, Dorset, England

The oldest posture models of Scelidosaurus, going back to O.C. Marsh, were much like many other dinosaurs of the past. Tail dragging and a splayed out posture were the expected and the normal postures of dinosaurs, including Scelidosaurus. The neck was stocky and fattened, but the head stayed nearly the same regardless of the model's origin or time space in time. Overall, as with many of the Crystal Palace and other 19th century statues, Scelidosaurus appeared to be an Iguana at the extremely odd end of the Iguana plastic toy spectrum. Notice that the hindlimb structure and the forelimb are slightly splayed and at nearly the exact some shoulder/hip level.