Peloroplites

Peloroplites (meaning "monstrous heavy one") is a monospecific genus of nodosaurid dinosaur from Utah that lived during the Late Cretaceous (Cenomanian to lower Turonian stage, 98.2 to 93 Ma) in what is now the Mussentuchit Member of the Cedar Mountain Formation. The type and only species, Peloroplites cedrimontanus, is known from a partial skull and postcranial skeleton. It was named in 2008 by Kenneth Carpenter and colleagues. Peloroplites was 6 metres (20 feet) long and weighed 2 tonnes (4,410 lbs), making it one of the largest known nodosaurids, and came from a time when ankylosaurids and nodosaurids were attaining large sizes.

==Discovery and Naming== thumb|left|Outcrops of the Cedar Mountain Formation in Utah In 2001, a skeleton of a large nodosaurid from the Cedar Mountain Formation in Emery County, Utah was mentioned by Burge and Bird in a publication about the faunal composition of the Price River II quarry. More material was obtained and was subsequently described in 2008 by Kenneth Carpenter, Jeff Bartlett, John Bird and Reese Barrick. The Price River II quarry was previously reported as occurring in the Ruby Ranch Member by Burge and Bird (2001) but was later reported as occurring in the base of the Mussentuchit Member due to the dark, carbonaceous nature of mudstones of the strata. The Price River II quarry has also produced specimens pertaining to four individuals of a new brachiosaurid, an iguanodontid, associated cranial and postcranial material of Cedarpelta, a turtle and a pterosaur. The holotype specimen, CEUM 26331, consists of a partial skull. Additional specimens were assigned to Peloroplites that consist of cervical vertebrae, dorsal vertebrae, synsacrums, caudal vertebrae, chevron, scapula-coracoids, humeri, radii, ulnae, ilia, pubis, ischium, femora, tibiae, fibulae, metacarpals, metatarsal, metapodials, phalanges, unguals, osteoderms and various bone fragments. The holotype and assigned specimens are currently housed at the College of Eastern Utah, Prehistoric Museum, Utah.