| Diet | Herbivore |
| Height | 1.5m |
| Length | 4m |
| Weight | 1 tonnes |
| Environment | Land |
| Era | Cretaceous |
| Period | Late Cretaceous |
| Type | Ankylosaur |
| Location | Antarctica |
Antarctopelta was a heavily armoured ankylosaur that lived during the Late Cretaceous period, approximately 72 to 66 million years ago. This remarkable dinosaur holds the distinction of being the only ankylosaur ever discovered in Antarctica, making it one of the most geographically unique dinosaur finds in the world. The single known specimen was found on James Ross Island, which during the Cretaceous period enjoyed a much warmer climate than today's frozen continent.
As an ankylosaur, Antarctopelta was built like a living tank. It walked on four sturdy legs and possessed a low-slung, heavily armoured body covered in protective bony plates called osteoderms. These defensive features helped protect it from predators whilst it browsed for plant material. The dinosaur measured approximately 4 metres in length and stood about 1.5 metres tall at the hip, weighing roughly one tonne.
Antarctopelta was a dedicated herbivore, using its small teeth and powerful jaw muscles to process tough plant material. The ankylosaur would have fed on ferns, cycads, and early flowering plants that grew in the warmer Antarctic forests of the Cretaceous period. Its discovery has provided valuable insights into how armoured dinosaurs adapted to polar environments, even though these regions were much more temperate during the Mesozoic era than they are today.
Antarctopelta possessed the characteristic heavy body armour of ankylosaurs, with rows of bony osteoderms covering its back and sides. It had a low, broad skull typical of its group and a heavily built, quadrupedal body designed for defence rather than speed.
Antarctopelta likely lived in small herds, grazing on low-growing vegetation in the Cretaceous forests of Antarctica. When threatened by predators, it would have relied on its heavy armour plating and possibly a tail club for protection, though the tail club is not preserved in the known specimen.
| Phylum | Chordata |
| Class | Ornithischia |
| Family | Nodosauridae |
| Genus | Antarctopelta |
Antarctopelta was first described by Leonardo Salgado and Zulma Gasparini in 2006. The original fossils were discovered at James Ross Island, Antarctica.
