Ankylosaurus Facts

Ankylosaurus is a genus of armoured dinosaur that lived during the Late Cretaceous period, around 68-66 million years ago. It belonged to the family Ankylosauridae, which also includes other armoured dinosaurs such as Euoplocephalus and Panoplosaurus.

The Ankylosaurus lived all across the northern hemisphere with fossils being found in a variety of different environments from forests and swamps to the floodplains of North America and Asia.

Ankylosaurus evolved its iconic club-like tail and spiky armoured plates called osteoderms to help defend itself against attacks from fast-moving predators. As a slow-moving herbivore, the Ankylosaurus did not need speed to catch its prey but instead evolved to defend itself.

Growing to around 2 meters tall at the hip and up to 8 meters long the Ankylosaurus was an average-sized dinosaur which could weigh up to 8 tons.