''Hierosaurus'' (meaning "sacred lizard") is an

extinct Extinction is the termination of an organism by the death of its Endling, last member. A taxon may become Functional extinction, functionally extinct before the death of its last member if it loses the capacity to Reproduction, reproduce and ...

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

of nodosaurid

ankylosaur Ankylosauria is a group of herbivorous dinosaurs of the clade Ornithischia. It includes the great majority of dinosaurs with armor in the form of bony osteoderms, similar to turtles. Ankylosaurs were bulky quadrupeds, with short, powerful l ...

which lived during the

Late Cretaceous The Late Cretaceous (100.5–66 Ma) is the more recent of two epochs into which the Cretaceous Period is divided in the geologic time scale. Rock strata from this epoch form the Upper Cretaceous Series. The Cretaceous is named after ''cre ...

87 to 82 million years ago. Its fossils were found in the Smoky Hill Chalk Member of the

Niobrara Formation The Niobrara Formation , also called the Niobrara Chalk, is a geologic formation in North America that was deposited between 87 and 82 million years ago during the Coniacian, Santonian, and Campanian stages of the Late Cretaceous. It is com ...

, in western Kansas, which would have been near the middle of the Western Interior Sea during the Late Cretaceous. It was a nodosaurid, an

without a clubbed tail. Hierosaurus spine

The only species of this genus, ''Hierosaurus sternbergii'', was described by George Wieland on the basis of cranial and postcranial osteoderms collected by

Charles Hazelius Sternberg Charles Hazelius Sternberg (June 15, 1850 – July 20, 1943) was an American fossil collector and paleontology, paleontologist. He was active in both fields from 1876 to 1928, and collected fossils for Edward Drinker Cope and Othniel C. Marsh, ...

in the Niobrara Formation of western Kansas. Nowadays, ''Hierosaurus'' is considered a ''

nomen dubium In binomial nomenclature, a ''nomen dubium'' (Latin for "doubtful name", plural ''nomina dubia'') is a scientific name that is of unknown or doubtful application. Zoology In case of a ''nomen dubium,'' it may be impossible to determine whether a ...

'', and a second species, ''H. coleii'', was reassigned to the new genus ''

Niobrarasaurus ''Niobrarasaurus'' (meaning "Niobrara lizard") is an extinct genus of Nodosauridae, nodosaurid ankylosaur which lived during the Cretaceous 87 to 82 million years ago. Its fossils were found in the Smoky Hill Chalk, Smoky Hill Chalk Member of the ...

'' in 1995.M. K. Vickaryous, T. Maryanska, and D. B. Weishampel. 2004. Ankylosauria. In D. B. Weishampel, P. Dodson, and H. Osmolska (eds.), The Dinosauria (second edition). University of California Press, Berkeley 363-392.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q3785503 Nodosauridae Dinosaur genera Santonian dinosaurs Fossil taxa described in 1909 Dinosaurs of the United States

See also

References