Description

Late Triassic

Bull Canyon Formation

Guadalupe County, New Mexico, USA

Unusual 0.35 inch dermal armor plate.

Reptile, Archosaur.

Scutes, plates, and/or spikes make up the defensive armor of some extinct and modern reptiles.  Single specimens are often not distinctive enough to identify to genus or family, especially for those Triassic terrestrial deposits in which a number of reptiles bear various types of armor, but they are interesting specimens to add to a collection.