Ankylosauridae

Ankylosaurids
Temporal range: Early Cretaceous - Late Cretaceous,
Mounted skeleton of Scolosaurus thronus, Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Clade: Dinosauria
Clade: Ornithischia
Clade: Thyreophora
Clade: Ankylosauria
Clade: Euankylosauria
Family: Ankylosauridae
Brown, 1908
Type species
Ankylosaurus magniventris
Brown, 1908
Subgroups
Synonyms
  • Syrmosauridae Maleev, 1952

Ankylosauridae (/ˌæŋkɪlˈsɔːrɪd/) is a family of armored dinosaurs within Ankylosauria, and is the sister group to Nodosauridae. The oldest known Ankylosaurids date to around 122 million years ago and went extinct 66 million years ago during the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event.[1] These animals were mainly herbivorous and were obligate quadrupeds, with leaf-shaped teeth and robust, scute-covered bodies. Ankylosaurids possess a distinctly domed and short snout, wedge-shaped osteoderms on their skull, scutes along their torso, and a tail club.[2]

Ankylosauridae is exclusively known from the northern hemisphere, with specimens found in western North America, Europe, and East Asia. The first discoveries within this family were of the genus Ankylosaurus, by Peter Kaiser and Barnum Brown in Montana in 1906.[3] Brown went on to name Ankylosauridae and the subfamily Ankylosaurinae in 1908.

  1. ^ Fastovsky, David E.; Weishampel, David B. (2012). Dinosaurs: A Concise Natural History (2nd ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  2. ^ Sereno, Paul C. (1999-06-25). "The Evolution of Dinosaurs". Science. 284 (5423): 2137–2147. doi:10.1126/science.284.5423.2137. ISSN 0036-8075. PMID 10381873.
  3. ^ Barnum., Brown; C., Kaisen, Peter (1908-01-01). "The Ankylosauridae, a new family of armored dinosaurs from the Upper Cretaceous. Bulletin of the AMNH ; v. 24, article 12". hdl:2246/1435. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia · View on Wikipedia

Developed by Tubidy