nodosaurian

== English == === Etymology === From nodosaurus +‎ -ian. Compare ankylosaurian, derived from translingual Ankylosauria. === Noun === nodosaurian (plural nodosaurians) Synonym of nodosaurid, any member of the family Nodosauridae, ankylosaurians without clublike tails. 2000, Paul E. Olsen, Lecture 19: The Late Cretaceous I – Mongolia: Pinacosaurus is a common dinosaur in the Mongolian deposits. It is an ankylosaurid (member of the Family Ankylosauridae) as opposed to a nodosaurian as we saw in Sauropelta from the Cloverly in the previous lecture. Ankylosaurids differ from nodosaurians in [retention] of a primitive configuration of the skull roof (e.g. there are still paired plates). However, ankylosaurids also have the novel shared derived character of having a bony club at the end of the tail (above). Ankylosaurids, such as Pinacosaurus also tend to have broader skulls than nodosaurids and tend to have spikes on the rear corevers of their box-like skulls.