Bissektipelta (meaning "Bissekty shield") is a genus of ankylosaurine thyreophoran dinosaurs that lived in Asia during the Late Cretaceous in what is now the Bissekty Formation of Uzbekistan. Bissektipelta is a monospecific genus, containing only the type species B. archibaldi.
In September 1998, the joint Uzbek-Russian-British-American-Project excavated the braincase of an ankylosaur. In 2002, Alexandr Averianov, based on this find, named a second species of the genus Amtosaurus: Amtosaurus archibaldi. The specific name honours James David Archibald, leading the URBAC (Uzbekistan, Russia, Britain, America, & Canada) project that performed the excavation.[1]
The holotype specimen, ZIN PH 1/6, was collected from the Bissekty Formation, dating from the late Turonian-Coniacian, of Dzharakuduk. It consists of a well-preserved, fully ossified braincase with a partial skull roof, along with isolated teeth and osteoderms.[1]
In 2004, Jolyon Parish and Paul Barrett concluded that the type species of Amtosaurus, Amtosaurus magnus, was a nomen dubium, a dubious name. This implied that no other species could be validly referred to the genus Amtosaurus. A. archibaldi should be reassigned to a new taxon. They renamed the genus as Bissektipelta with the generic name combining a reference to the geological formation with a Latin pelta (meaning small shield), which is derived from the Greek peltè (meaning shield). The type species is the original A. archibaldi but the new combination is Bissektipelta archibaldi.[2]
Two additional specimens were referred to by Kuzmin and colleagues in 2020. These consist of ZIN PH 281/16, a smaller but well-preserved partial braincase with open sutures between some bones and ZIN PH 2329/16, another braincase similar in size to the holotype that is slightly damaged and mixed up within the sediment layer.[3]
Parish & Barrett indicated some distinguishing traits of Bissektipelta. One of these is an autapomorphy, a unique derived character. On the top skull roof grooves are present, together forming a truncated "Y" and separating three polygonal areas of flat remodelled bone tissue.[2] These grooves reflected the position of skull osteoderms. Averianov had in 2002 proposed three traits in which A. archibaldi differed from A. magnus. Its braincase has three exits for the Nervus hypoglossus (cranial nerve XII) instead of two. It also has a more limited angle of 90° between the ventral surfaces of the basioccipital and the basisphenoid, and more caudally, to the rear, situated basipterygoid processes.[1] In 2004, these were no longer considered unique traits but the triple exits were seen as rare.[2]