Ankylosaurus

Ankylosaurus magniventris

Ankylosaurus was the ultimate armored dinosaur, covered in thick bony plates called osteoderms. Its massive tail club could deliver bone-shattering blows to predators. Even T. rex would have had difficulty attacking a full-grown Ankylosaurus.

Physical Description

Measurement	Value	Human Scale
Longueur	10.0 m	about as long as 2 cars end-to-end
Height	1.7 m	—
Poids	6.0 t	about the weight of 1.0 elephants

Diet & Feeding

Herbivore

Ankylosaurus was a plant-eating dinosaur. Herbivores typically fed on ferns, cycads, conifers, and other vegetation available during their era. Many herbivorous dinosaurs developed specialized teeth and digestive systems for processing tough plant material.

Time Period

Cretaceous Late Mesozoic Era

Ankylosaurus lived during the Cretaceous Late period of the Mesozoic Era, approximately 100,5 to 66,0 million years ago.

The final age of dinosaurs, featuring iconic species like Tyrannosaurus rex, Triceratops, and Velociraptor. Dinosaurs reached their peak diversity before the catastrophic asteroid impact at the Chicxulub crater ended the Mesozoic Era.

Discovery & Naming

Nommé par	Barnum Brown
Année de découverte	1908
Lieu de découverte	Hell Creek Formation, Montana, USA

Classification

Dinosauria → Ornithischia → Thyreophora → Ankylosauria → Ankylosaurus

Fused lizards

Heavily armored herbivorous dinosaurs covered in bony osteoderms. Many had tail clubs used as defensive weapons. Ankylosaurus was the largest, reaching 10 meters long.