![\"Nipponopelta](\"https:\/\/cdn.sci.news\/images\/enlarge14\/image_15014e-Nipponopelta-yezoensis.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nNipponopelta yezoensis. Image credit: TotalDino<\/a> \/ CC BY 4.0.<\/p>\n The newly identified dinosaur species roamed Earth during the Late Cretaceous epoch, between 96 and 94 million years ago.<\/p>\n Named Nipponopelta yezoensis, it is the first ankylosaur ever formally named from Japan, and only the second Asian member of its subfamily, the nodosaurids<\/a>, known from skull material rather than bones from the body alone.<\/p>\n \u201cThe traditionally known ankylosaurs (now Euankylosauria) are divided in two major clades, nodosaurids and ankylosaurids, among the most widely discovered dinosaurs from Cretaceous deposits,\u201d said Hokkaido University paleontologist Shumpei Oyabu<\/a> and his colleagues.<\/p>\n \u201cThe geographic distribution of nodosaurids, defined by the largest clade containing Nodosaurus textilis but not Ankylosaurus magniventris, extends to five major continents, including North America, South America, Asia, Europe, and Antarctica.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cImportantly, nodosaurids are more commonly found in marine deposits compared to ankylosaurids.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThis distribution pattern may be partially attributed to the limited presence of ankylosaurids in North America.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNevertheless, several studies suggest that nodosaurids were more adapted to coastal and estuarine environments.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIn Asia, nodosaurids are mainly found in the mid-Cretaceous deposits in Japan and China. Their abundance is much smaller than that of North American and European nodosaurids.\u201d<\/p>\n