The Charmouth Dinosaur

Name: Scelidosaurus (Skel-EYE-doh-sore-us)

Age: Lower Jurassic

Weight: around half a tonne.

Size: up to 4 metres long.

Diet: Herbivore – Terrestrial plant material (cycads and conifers).

Dinosaurs are possibly some of the most talked about and exciting creatures that have ever lived. The name “dinosaur” covers many different species over a period of nearly 200 million years, and they have provided the inspiration for books and films since they were first named in 1842.

Scelidosaurus is Charmouth’s very own local dinosaur. The first one to be found was discovered in 1858 by James Harrison in the cliffs outside the centre and was the first complete dinosaur skeleton to be found anywhere in the world.

Only eight Scelidosaurs have been found in the world and all of them within a mile of the Coast Centre.

Scelidosaurus was an early relative of the group of dinosaurs that include Ankylosaurus, famous for its armor plating and club-ended tail. Scelidosaurus had similar horny lumps and spikes on its back, as well bony plates welded to the skull. These features offered the creature protection from predators that roamed on the land at the same time.

This dinosaur was a quadruped, meaning it walked on four legs. Most of the weight was carried around by the hind legs and long tail, which may have been used as a counterbalance. Like many plant eating dinosaurs Scelidosaurus most likely had a small bony beak, which it used to rip off vegetation such as cycads.

The Scelidosaurs found at Charmouth must all have been washed out to sea and therefore were not fossilised in their natural habitat. Most dinosaurs are found fossilised by the rocks formed in the environment where they lived. These rocks, and the other fossils in them, tell palaeontologists (fossil experts) about how the dinosaur lived. This means there are lots of questions about the life of Scelidosaurus that we may never be able to answer without finding firm evidence of the plants it ate, and the other land animals it existed alongside.