Ankylosaurus

Ankylosaurus magniventris

Encased in thick bony plates called osteoderms, Ankylosaurus magniventris was among the most heavily armored of all dinosaurs. This herbivore grew to roughly 10 meters and around 6,000 kilograms, with a broad, low body carried close to the ground and a massive bony tail club capable of delivering bone-shattering blows to attackers. It shared the Late Cretaceous of western North America, roughly 100 to 66 million years ago, with predators such as Tyrannosaurus, against which even a large aggressor would have struggled to reach its lightly protected underside. Barnum Brown described the genus in 1908 from the Hell Creek Formation of Montana, and it remains the archetypal armored dinosaur.

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.

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Physical Description

Measurement	Value	Human Scale
लंबाई	10.0 m	about as long as 2 cars end-to-end
Height	1.7 m	—
वजन	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

नामकर्ता	Barnum Brown
खोज वर्ष	1908
खोज स्थान	Hell Creek Formation, Montana, USA

वर्गीकरण

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.

Size Comparison

At 10.0 meters long and 6000.0 kg, Ankylosaurus was about as long as 2 cars end-to-end and about the weight of 1.0 elephants.

Other dinosaurs from the same period:

Aletopelta coombsi Murusraptor barrosaensis Adelolophus hutchisoni Chirostenotes Alexornis antecedens Llukalkan aliocranianus

Quick Facts

वर्गीकरण	Ankylosauria
भूवैज्ञानिक युग	Cretaceous Late
आहार	Herbivore
आकार	10.0m long, 1.7m tall, 6.0t