| Gargoyleosaurus Temporal range: Late Jurassic,
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|---|---|
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| Fossil skeleton, Denver Museum of Nature and Science | |
Scientific classification 
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| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Clade: | Dinosauria |
| Clade: | †Ornithischia |
| Clade: | †Thyreophora |
| Clade: | †Ankylosauria |
| Family: | †Nodosauridae |
| Genus: | †Gargoyleosaurus Carpenter et al. 1998 |
| Species: | †G. parkpinorum
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| Binomial name | |
| †Gargoyleosaurus parkpinorum Carpenter et al. 1998
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Gargoyleosaurus (meaning "gargoyle lizard") is one of the earliest ankylosaurs known from reasonably complete fossil remains. The holotype was discovered in 1995 at the Bone Cabin Quarry West locality, in Albany County, Wyoming in exposures of the Upper Jurassic (Kimmeridgian to Tithonian stages) Morrison Formation.[1]
The type species, G. parkpinorum (originally G. parkpini) was described by Ken Carpenter et al. in 1998. A mounted skeletal reconstruction of Gargoyleosaurus parkpinorum can be seen at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science and, alongside a couple skeletons of baby Stegosaurus, has been on display there since around 2002. Gargoyleosaurus was present in stratigraphic zone 2 of the Morrison Formation.[2]
- ^ Benton, Michael J. (2012). Prehistoric Life. Edinburgh, Scotland: Dorling Kindersley. p. 278. ISBN 978-0-7566-9910-9.
- ^ Foster, J. (2007). "Appendix." Jurassic West: The Dinosaurs of the Morrison Formation and Their World. Indiana University Press. pp. 327–329.