Horshamosaurus is an extinct dubious genus of nodosaurid ankylosaurian dinosaur from the Early Cretaceous of England. It lived during the Barremian of the Cretaceous and the type species is Horshamosaurus rudgwickensis.
Discovery and Naming[]
The holotype HORSM 1988.1546, was found in a layer of marl beds of the lower Weald Clay dating from the Barremian age, over 125 million years old. It is fragmentary and includes two incomplete dorsal vertebrae, a partial left shoulder, a fragment of front tail vertebra, the distal end of a humerus, a nearly complete right tibia (now realized to be an ischium of the hip), rib fragments, and two osteoderms.
This material was described as a species of Polacanthus, named P. rudgewickensis. In 2015, William Blows made it a separate genus Horshamosaurus, the generic name referring to Horsham. Its type species is Horshamosaurus rudgwickensis. In 2020, Horshamosaurus was determined to be dubious, and not diagnosable beyond the family of Nodosauridae.