Action figure fan? This Jurassic warrior in armor will surely surprise you.

The dinosaur that seemed “defenseless” in the eyes of its predators.

By: Anthony Rodriguez, Journalist

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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.

                                            Timeline of ankylosaur research - Wikipedia

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

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