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| This
pair of small bones are the protective, bony eyelids which were also preserved
along with the skull of Pawpawsaurus campbelli. This is the
first species of nodosaur to have been found with this anatomical feature.
Bony eyelids were previously known from ankylosaurids, the nodosaurs' more
heavily armored relatives.
Also of note in Pawpawsaurus is
the fact that it its skull has an incomplete septum and no secondary palate,
both of which are primitive in comparison to the skulls of other nodosaurs. |
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Here is shown a life reconstruction
of a very young nodosaur, upon which its fossil bones have been arranged.
These were the first remains of a baby nodosaur ever found. They
were discovered in 1989 by John Maurice Jr. at the same site at which I
found the adult Pawpawsaurus skull. However, whether or not
this partial juvenile skeleton is of the same nodosaur species remains
as of yet unknown. |
| Shortly
before I unearthed the skull of Pawpawsaurus, Robert Reid found
this nodosaur leg bone (a right humerus) at another Paw Paw exposure nearby.
Like the other postcranial nodosaur material that has been discovered at
and near the skull site, this humerus has not been positively classified
as belonging to Pawpawsaurus. It seems that there is a good
possibility that all of the nodosaur remains found at this location would
be of the same species, but there is as of yet no way to know for certain. |
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