Dino card No. 0117 of 2,015

Ankylosaurus

Say it: AN-kih-loh-SORE-us

Name means: “fused lizard”1

Ate: PlantsArmoured dinosLate Cretaceous

Ankylosaurus was a walking tank covered in bony plates and armed with a heavy club on its tail. It lived at the very end of the Age of Dinosaurs, about 68 to 66 million years ago, in what is now North America. Despite its scary look, it was a gentle plant-eater that used its tail club to defend itself from big predators like Tyrannosaurus rex.1

Lived

84 to 66 million years ago3

Late Cretaceous

Fossils found in

Montana and Wyoming, USA, and Alberta, Canada2 3

Food

Plants1

Length

6.25 to 8 m2 1

estimates vary; 6.25 m from a 2004 study, 8.0 m from the Natural History Museum

Weight

8 tonnes1

Artist's life restoration of Ankylosaurus — How Ankylosaurus may have looked, by Emily Willoughby ([email protected], http://emilywilloughby.com). CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Scientists still argue about colours and details.

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

How big was it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

Ankylosaurus is one of the largest known ankylosaurids, with an estimated length of up to 8 metres (26 feet).1 2

Its body was covered in bony plates called osteoderms, and it had a large half-ring of armour across its neck and shoulders.2

The tail club was made of fused bones and could be swung powerfully from side to side to deliver devastating blows to attackers.1

Ankylosaurus had a long, low skull with prominent horns that stuck out sideways or upwards.2

Scientists have never found a complete Ankylosaurus skeleton, so some details about its armour arrangement remain unknown.1

It moved slowly on four legs, but could probably speed up when it needed to escape danger.1

Some scientists think Ankylosaurus might have used its front limbs for digging, perhaps to find roots or other food.1

Myth buster

Myth: Ankylosaurus used its tail club to attack and kill prey.

Truth: Ankylosaurus was a herbivore and only used its tail club for defence against predators, not for hunting.1

For dino experts

Scientific name: Ankylosaurus
Named by: Brown 19083
Group: Armoured dinos
Family / clade: Ankylosauridae3
Classification: Ornithischia > Ankylosauria > Ankylosauridae > Thyreophora3
Age of the rocks: 84 to 66 million years (Campanian to Maastrichtian)3
Rock formations: Ferris, Hell Creek, Lance3
Countries: USA, Canada3
Fossil records: 16 in the Paleobiology Database3
Discovery: The first Ankylosaurus bones were found in 1906 in the Hell Creek Formation of Montana, USA, by a team led by Barnum Brown. Brown named the species Ankylosaurus magniventris in 1908.1 3
Still debated: Scientists still debate exactly how the back armour of Ankylosaurus was arranged, because no complete skeleton has been found.1

Where the facts come from

Ankylosaurus | Natural History Museum (nhm.ac.uk)
Redescription of Ankylosaurus magniventris Brown 1908 (Ankylosauridae) from the Upper Cretaceous of the Western Interior of North America (cdnsciencepub.com)
Ankylosaurus 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.