Subfamily
Valid Extinct

Polacanthinae

Lapparent and Lavocat 1955

Polacanthinae is a subfamily of ankylosaurs, most often nodosaurids, from the Late Jurassic through Early Cretaceous of Europe and potentially North America and Asia. The group is defined as the largest clade closer to Polacanthus foxii than Nodosaurus textilis or Ankylosaurus magniventris, as long as that group nests within either Nodosauridae or Ankylosauridae. If Polacanthus, and by extent Polacanthinae, falls outside either family-level clade, then the -inae suffix would be inappropriate, and the proper name for the group would be the informally defined Polacanthidae.

Temporal range
Triassic
Jurassic
Cretaceous
Paleogene
Neogene
252 201 145 66 0 Ma
PBDB occurrences
2
Group
Dinosaures
Herbivore Ground dwelling, gregarious Terrestrial
Polacanthinae
click to enlarge
Polcanthus hulkii pelvis: top - as presented by J.W. Hulke in 1887; middle - as currently preserved; bottom - CG reconstruction of pelvis in ventral view. © Carpenter, Kenneth · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia
PBDB ↗ Wikipedia ↗
Classification
Dinosauria Unranked clade
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Ornithischia Unranked clade
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Parapredentata Unranked clade
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Saphornithischia Unranked clade
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Prionodontia Unranked clade
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Genasauria Unranked clade
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Thyreophora Unranked clade
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Thyreophoroidea Superfamily
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Eurypoda Unranked clade
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Ankylosauria Unranked clade
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Euankylosauria Unranked clade
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Ankylosauridae Family
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Polacanthinae Subfamily
Fossil sites 2 geolocated sites
Distribution
Top countries
🇺🇸 United States
2
Geological formations
Temporal distribution
Valanginian (137.05–132.6 Ma)
2
Images 1
Bibliography
Original description
J. I. Kirkland. 1998. A polacanthine ankylosaur (Ornithischia: Dinosauria) from the Early Cretaceous (Barremian) of eastern Utah. Lower and Middle Cretaceous Terrestrial Ecosystems (S. G. Lucas, J. I. Kirkland, & J. W. Estep, eds.), New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science Bulletin 14:271-281
Bibliography (1)
J. I. Kirkland and S. K. Madsen. 2007. The Lower Cretaceous Cedar Mountain Formation, Eastern Utah: the view up an always interesting learning curve. Utah Geological Association Publication 35