"shield bearers." A varied group of dinosaurs that all have bony plates along their spine. The Stegosauria and Ankylosauria are members of this group.

The Thyreophora ("shield bearers", often known simply as "armored dinosaurs" - Greek: θυρεος, a large oblong shield, like a door and φορεω, I carry) were a subgroup of the ornithischian dinosaurs. They were armored herbivorous dinosaurs, living from the early Jurassic until the end of the Cretaceous.