Dino card No. 0013 of 2,027

Acantholipan

Say it: a-KAN-tho-lih-PAN

Name means: “spiny Gray People, referring to the spines on its body and the Apache tribe that lived where it was found”1

Ate: PlantsArmoured dinosLate Cretaceous

Acantholipan was a plant-eating dinosaur covered in bony armor and spikes. It lived in what is now Mexico during the Late Cretaceous period. This dinosaur is the first ankylosaur ever named from Mexico!1

Lived

84 to 72 million years ago3

Late Cretaceous

Fossils found in

Coahuila, Mexico1

Food

Plants3

Length

5.5 m2

Weight

1.6 tonnes2

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

How big was it?

How long was it?

How heavy was it?

as heavy as 1 cars

as long as 6 dogs nose to tailas long as 31 bananas end to endas heavy as 53 big dogsas heavy as 320 watermelons

How big was Acantholipan compared to YOU?

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cool stuff

Fun facts

Acantholipan was named in 2018, making it a relatively new dinosaur discovery.1

Its fossils were found in a marine layer of the Pen Formation, meaning it may have lived near a sea coast.1

The only known skeleton is partial and lacks a skull, but includes a spike-like bone from its back.1

Acantholipan belonged to the nodosaur family, a group of armored dinosaurs with spikes along their bodies.1

Its closest relative is thought to be Nodosaurus, another armored dinosaur from North America.1

The name Acantholipan combines Greek for 'spine' and the Spanish name for the Lipan Apache people.1

AI-made picture of Acantholipan — An AI-made picture of how Acantholipan might have looked, made by a computer from what scientists know. It is a guess: the real animal may have looked different, and nobody knows its true colours.

you asked

Most asked questions about Acantholipan

?What did Acantholipan eat?

It was an herbivore, meaning it ate plants. Scientists know this because it belonged to the nodosaurid group of dinosaurs, which were all plant-eaters.1 3

?How big was Acantholipan?

Scientists don't know its exact size because only a partial skeleton has been found. It was an armored dinosaur, but no length or weight estimates have been published yet.1

?Where was Acantholipan found?

Its fossils were found in Coahuila, Mexico, at a site called Los Primos near San Miguel. They were discovered in a marine layer of the Pen Formation.1 3

?Is Acantholipan a dinosaur?

Yes, it is a dinosaur. It belongs to the group Ankylosauria, which are armored dinosaurs, and it lived during the Late Cretaceous period.1 3

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For dino experts

Scientific name: Acantholipan
Named by: Rivera-Sylva et al. 20183
Group: Armoured dinos
Family / clade: Nodosauridae3
Classification: Ornithischia > Ankylosauria > Nodosauridae > Thyreophora3
Age of the rocks: 84 to 72 million years (Campanian)3
Rock formations: Pen3
Countries: Mexico3
Fossil records: 1 in the Paleobiology Database3
Discovery: Acantholipan was named in 2018 by Rivera-Sylva and colleagues. The fossils were found at Los Primos near San Miguel in Coahuila, Mexico, and were first reported in 2011.1

Where the facts come from

Acantholipan (en.wikipedia.org)
Acantholipan gonzalezi | Dinosaur Database by DinoAnimals.com (dinoanimals.com)
Acantholipan in The Paleobiology Database (CC BY 4.0): age, places, rock formations, classification.

Every fact on this page has a number that points to its source. If we got something wrong, sorry, we are dino fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.

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