🛡️Ankylosaurs

Armoured tanks

Ornithischia › Thyreophora › Ankylosauria

Ankylosaurs were like living tanks. Their backs were covered in bony armour, and some had a heavy club on their tail. Even their eyelids could have armour!

Ankylosaurs are thyreophoran ornithischians whose bodies were covered in osteoderms, bones that grow inside the skin. They lived from the Middle Jurassic to the end of the Cretaceous and are split into two main families: ankylosaurids, such as Ankylosaurus and Euoplocephalus, which had a tail club made of fused osteoderms, and nodosaurids, such as Sauropelta and Edmontonia, which lacked a club but often had large shoulder spikes. The exceptionally preserved nodosaur Borealopelta from Canada kept its armour in life position along with traces of skin pigment, suggesting a dark back and lighter belly for camouflage. Even these heavily armoured animals seem to have needed to hide from big predators.