(ang-KILE-uh-sawr-us)
This was the largest, heaviest, and
most heavily defended of the ankylosaurid (fused lizard) family to which it belonged. It
was more than 32 feet long, weighed 5 tons, and had lots of armour plates over its body.
Ankylosaurids were armoured dinosaurs with short legs and barrel-shaped bodies. They had
short necks and stood low on the ground. Bony slabs, plates, and spikes were set into its
skin, under which the flesh grew thick like panels of leather. Dinosaurs of this type had
small teeth and jaws with very little muscle power.
Ankylosaurus was one of the most
successful of its family at surviving. A great many of them were around at the end of the
dinosaur age. 
| EXCAVATING AN ANKYLOSAUR A Polish palaeontologist's delicate work with knife
and brush lays bare the forepart of Saichania. This ankylosaur may have been suffocated by
a sandstorm in the Gobi desert nearly 80 million years ago. |
They had evolved from earlier types more
vulnerable to predators. Several fossil skeletons have been found in Canada, and most
seemed to have survived by hiding under their armour. Ankylosaurus had a large bony club
at the end of its tall. With this, the dinosaur probably lashed out at flesh eaters,
knocking them off their feet or crushing their skulls. The muscles of the tail were well
developed in order to use the heavy club most effectively. An armour of heavy bone plates
and horns also covered the top of the skull.
Ankylosaurs were replacing stegosaurs by the Early
Cretaceous, and became the most abundant, low-browsing, quadrupedal dinosaurs. They are
chiefly known from fossils found in North America and Asia, but Australian discoveries
prove that they also spread to southern continents.
Location: USA, Canada
Size: Length- 30 feet
Weight-
1-5 tons
Classification:
Family- Ankylosauridae
Infraorder-Ankylosauria
Suborder-Thyreophora
Order- Ornithischia
Time: 144 million years ago
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