Action figure fan? This Jurassic warrior in armor will surely surprise you.
The dinosaur that seemed “defenseless” in the eyes of its predators.
Let’s go back to the late Cretaceous period, approximately 68 to 66 million years ago, when this armored reptile walked this earth. Ankylosaurs were quadrupedal herbivores, their bodies covered in a solid armor of bony plates and, in some cases, spines.
The individuals of the best known genus and which gives its name to the suborder, the ankylosaurs, measured between 7 and 9 m in length. Its powerful tail was made up of two bones that extended on either side of the tail bones.
Interesting Facts About Ankylosaurs
WHERE IT LIVED: Ankylosaurs fossils have been found in the western USA (Montana) and Canada (Alberta), North America. Two ankylosaurs skulls and three partial skeletons (including armor and a tail club) have been found. Ankylosaur trackways were found near Sucre, Bolivia, South America.
NAME MEANING: Its name comes from the Greek words for “fused lizard”, in reference to its tough outer armor. Ankylosaurs had connected plates of bone under a layer of keratin, a protective protein found in hair and fingers. These special bones even existed in his eyelids! Ankylosaurs also had a club-shaped tail.
DIET: Herbivore (plant-eater) – Ankylosaurus had to eat a huge amount of low-lying plant material to sustain itself so its gut must have been very large. It probably had a fermentation compartment to aid in the digestion of the tough plant material, producing prodigious amounts of gas!
CLASSIFICATION:
- Kingdom Animalia (animals)
- Phylum Chordata (having a hollow nerve chord ending in a brain)
- Class Archosauria (diapsids with socket-set teeth, etc.)
- Order Ornithischia – bird-hipped dinosaurs
- Suborder Thyreophora (Enoplosauria) – armored, spiked and/or plated dinosaurs
- Superfamily Ankylosauria – armored dinosaurs
- Family Ankylosauridae – armored dinosaurs that have clubbed tails
- Genus Ankylosaurus
- Species A. magniventris (type species named by Brown, 1908)
ITS ENEMIES: Among its contemporaries were the large meat-eating Tyrannosaurus, Tarbosaurus, and Deinonychus. Short of being flipped over, the Ankylosaurus was well protected from these predators, and could even defend itself with its club-like tail.
Related Articles:
https://www.britannica.com/animal/Ankylosaurus
https://kids.nationalgeographic.com/animals/prehistoric/facts/ankylosaurus
https://www.livescience.com/25222-ankylosaurus.html
https://www.thoughtco.com/things-to-know-ankylosaurus-1093772
https://animals.howstuffworks.com/dinosaurs/ankylosaurus.htm
