Ankylosaurus is a genus of armored dinosaur. Its fossils have been found in geological formations dating to the very end of the Cretaceous Period, about 68–66 million years ago, in western North America. It is estimated to have been between 6 and 8 meters long and to have weighed between 4. 8 and 8 metric tons.
About Ankylosaurus in brief
Ankylosaurus is a genus of armored dinosaur. Its fossils have been found in geological formations dating to the very end of the Cretaceous Period, about 68–66 million years ago, in western North America. It was named by Barnum Brown in 1908; the only species in the genus is A. magniventris. The genus name means “fused lizard” and the specific name means “great belly” A handful of specimens have been excavated to date, but a complete skeleton has not been discovered. It is estimated to have been between 6 and 8 meters long and to have weighed between 4. 8 and 8 metric tons. It had a wide, low skull, with two horns pointing backward from the back of the head, and two horns below these that pointed backward and down. Unlike other ankylosaurs, its nostrils faced sideways rather than towards the front. The front part of the jaws was covered in a beak, with rows of small, leaf-shaped teeth farther behind it. The tail club is thought to have was used in defense against predators or in intraspecific combat. Its broad muzzle indicates it was a non-selective browser. Although it lived alongside a nodosaurid ankylosaur, their ranges and ecological niches do not appear to have overlapped, and Ankylososaurus may have inhabited upland areas. It lived alongside dinosaurs such as Tyrannosaurus, Triceratops, and Edmontosaurus. It appears to have lived in the Hell Creek, Lance, Scollard, Frenchman, and Ferris formations, but appears to has been rare in its environment.
Its closest relatives appear to be Anodontosaurus and Euoplocephalus. The name can be translated as “stiff lizard” or “curved lizard” The type species name magnivENTris is derived from the Latin: magnus and Latin: venter, referring to the great width of the animal’s body. The skeletal reconstruction accompanying the 1908 description restored the missing parts in a fashion similar to Stegosaurus, and Brown likened the result to the extinct armored mammal Glyptodon. In contrast to modern depictions, Brown’s stegos-like reconstruction showed robust forelimbs, a strongly arched back, a pelvis with prongs forwards from the ilvis, and pubongs forwards as a short, short, tail without a tail club. Brown’s reconstruction became highly influential, and became a highly influential review of paleontologist Samuel Wendell Williston’s work in the 1980s. In a 1908 review of Brown’s description, Williston claimed that Ankylosis was merely a synonym of the genus Stegopelta, which had also been named in 1905, and claimed that Williston had merely stated that Stegosaurus was a synonyms of Stegopsus, which he had also stated in 1905. The reconstruction was criticised as being based on too few remains, and that it was merely based on a hypothetical arrangement.
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This page is based on the article Ankylosaurus published in Wikipedia (as of Dec. 02, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
