• Question: Do You Know Anything About The Late Cretaceous Dinosaur Ankylosaurus?

    Asked by bhavinamistry to Davie, Gemma, James P, James V, Nuala on 28 Jun 2012.
    • Photo: James Verdon

      James Verdon answered on 28 Jun 2012:


      I don’t know much. But it did used to be my favourite when I was young, because it was armour plated and had that big club on its tail to bash things with

    • Photo: James Pope

      James Pope answered on 28 Jun 2012:


      Hi bhavinamistry,

      All I know for certain is that club end was fused to the vertebrae (the bones that make up the back bone) and was mostly made of bone and completely solid. If an attacking dinosaur got hit by that club in the leg it is likely it would break the bone and that would be lead to the dinosaur that was hit dying, as they wouldn’t be able to move around. Which makes it a great defensive mechanism, and if the Dinosaurs had had longer to develop, I reckon that defence would have been more common than it was when they died out.

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