Denversaurus was a large nodosaurid dinosaur that lived in North America 68-66 million years ago , during the Maastrichtian stage of the Cretaceous period. It was also the last surviving member of it's family "Nodosauridae". It was a close relative of the more famous Ankylosaurus. Although it lacked the famous tail club but still had an armour the to protect it against predators like Dakotaraptor and Tyrannosaurus.
Discovery[]
Denversaurus model by Jacob Baardse
Denversaurus skull
The first fossilized remains of Denversaurus was found in 1922 in the Lance Formation. The specimen consisted of a skull but lacked the lower jaw and 14 osteoderms. In 1943 , the specimen was considered to belong to "Edmontonia longiceps" by Barnum Brown. In 1988 Robert Thomas Bakker decided to split the specimen from Edmontonia and named it "Denversaurus schlessmani" since the animal had a wider skull than Edmontonia. The genus name was given after The Denver Museum of Natural History and the species name was given to honor Lee Schlessman.
Physical appearance[]
Denversaurus lacked the famous tail club of the closely related Ankylosaurids. It's armour was made up of tough and strong spiky osteoderms which would have been covered by keratin in real life , meaning that they would have appeared larger.
We can speculate that the animal was countershaded based on the closely related Borealopelta. So it's safe to assume that Denversaurus had a darker coloration on top and a lighter coloration on the bottom.
Behaviour[]
Denversaurus was a low browsing animal usually feeding on the ferns of the Lancian environments. They were probably solitary animals since we always find fossils belonging to a single animal but future discoveries may change that.
Hatchlings were easy prey for any predator of the time and place but adults probably weren't bothered by any predators other than Dakotaraptor and Tyrannosaurus.
Source[]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denversaurus
https://sauriangame.fandom.com/wiki/Denversaurus
my own knowledge was well