Ankylosauridae

Ankylosauridae 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 the clade went extinct 66 million years ago during the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event. 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.

Ankylosauridae

IJReid · CC BY 4.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Also called
ankylosauridPBDB
Sits inside
EuankylosauriaPBDB
Diet
herbivorePBDB, for Ornithischia
Life habit
ground dwelling, gregariousPBDB, for Ornithischia
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Ornithischia
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Ornithischia

Time the record covers

At least 112 million years on record.

The record covers at least 184.2 Mya to 72.2 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 199.5 Mya to 66 Mya.

Late Triassic — about 0 of 293 occurrencesEarly Jurassic — about 1 of 293 occurrencesEarly JurassicMiddle Jurassic — about 0 of 293 occurrencesLate Jurassic — about 1 of 293 occurrencesLate JurassicEarly Cretaceous — about 24 of 293 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 267 of 293 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 0 of 293 occurrences202–198 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences198–193 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences193–188 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences188–184 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences165–161 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences161–156 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences156–151 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences151–147 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences147–142 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences142–137 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences137–133 Mya — about 2 occurrences133–128 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences128–123 Mya — about 2 occurrences123–119 Mya — about 4 occurrences119–114 Mya — about 3 occurrences114–110 Mya — about 4 occurrences110–105 Mya — about 3 occurrences105–100 Mya — about 5 occurrences100–96 Mya — about 9 occurrences96–91 Mya — about 16 occurrences91–86 Mya — about 12 occurrences86–82 Mya — about 33 occurrences82–77 Mya — about 65 occurrences77–73 Mya — about 65 occurrences73–68 Mya — about 47 occurrences68–63 Mya — about 19 occurrences184.2 Mya72.2 Mya202 Mya63 Mya

293 occurrences of Ankylosauridae on record, most of them in the Late Cretaceous. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

293 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

70 formations

Dinosaur Park — 49.12°N, 110.47°WDinosaur Park — 50.82°N, 111.57°WDinosaur Park — 50.75°N, 111.47°WDinosaur Park — 50.78°N, 111.33°WDinosaur Park — 50.40°N, 111.10°WDinosaur Park — 50.73°N, 111.43°WDinosaur Park — 50.76°N, 111.50°WDinosaur Park — 50.74°N, 111.56°WDinosaur Park — 50.73°N, 111.30°WDinosaur Park — 51.44°N, 110.39°WDinosaur Park — 49.04°N, 110.37°WDinosaur Park — 49.22°N, 110.64°WDinosaur Park — 50.77°N, 111.37°WDinosaur Park — 50.68°N, 108.09°WDjadokhta — 44.16°N, 103.69°EDjadokhta — 43.66°N, 100.90°EDjadokhta — 44.26°N, 103.30°EDjadokhta — 44.23°N, 103.30°EDjadokhta — 44.18°N, 102.78°EDjadokhta — 44.05°N, 102.82°EDjadokhta — 44.00°N, 104.00°EDjadokhta — 44.09°N, 102.91°EDjadokhta — 44.52°N, 103.15°ENemegt — 43.59°N, 100.45°ENemegt — 43.60°N, 100.45°ENemegt — 43.49°N, 101.28°ENemegt — 43.58°N, 107.78°ENemegt — 43.87°N, 100.02°ENemegt — 43.82°N, 99.98°ENemegt — 43.87°N, 100.13°ENemegt — 43.47°N, 99.83°ENemegt — 43.99°N, 101.28°EHorseshoe Canyon — 51.63°N, 112.93°WHorseshoe Canyon — 51.79°N, 113.01°WHorseshoe Canyon — 52.00°N, 112.88°WHorseshoe Canyon — 51.75°N, 112.96°WHorseshoe Canyon — 51.46°N, 112.67°WHorseshoe Canyon — 51.50°N, 112.78°WHorseshoe Canyon — 50.83°N, 111.60°WHorseshoe Canyon — 50.70°N, 112.98°WHorseshoe Canyon — 51.69°N, 112.91°WHorseshoe Canyon — 51.86°N, 113.01°WHorseshoe Canyon — 51.54°N, 112.88°WOldman — 49.10°N, 110.94°WOldman — 49.08°N, 110.84°WOldman — 49.08°N, 110.68°WOldman — 49.16°N, 110.72°WOldman — 50.78°N, 110.50°WOldman — 50.90°N, 111.80°WOldman — 50.60°N, 111.62°WOldman — 49.28°N, 112.20°WBaynshire — 43.94°N, 101.33°EBaynshire — 43.14°N, 107.52°EBaynshire — 44.48°N, 110.03°EBaynshire — 44.34°N, 109.86°EBaynshire — 45.12°N, 110.84°EBaynshire — 44.41°N, 109.84°EBaynshire — 43.56°N, 107.91°EBaynshire — 44.18°N, 102.79°EBaynshire — 43.47°N, 99.83°EBaynshire — 44.30°N, 109.20°ETwo Medicine — 48.91°N, 112.64°WTwo Medicine — 48.97°N, 112.65°WTwo Medicine — 48.63°N, 113.75°WTwo Medicine — 48.49°N, 112.47°WTwo Medicine — 48.50°N, 112.68°WTwo Medicine — 48.65°N, 112.35°WTwo Medicine — 48.48°N, 112.35°WBaruungoyot — 43.49°N, 101.13°EBaruungoyot — 43.32°N, 99.83°EBaruungoyot — 43.30°N, 99.60°EBaruungoyot — 44.44°N, 109.78°EBaruungoyot — 42.51°N, 105.25°EBaruungoyot — 43.49°N, 99.83°EKirtland — 36.27°N, 108.17°WKirtland — 36.33°N, 108.08°WKirtland — 36.15°N, 107.93°WBissekty — 42.12°N, 62.66°EBissekty — 42.54°N, 63.30°EBissekty — 42.02°N, 63.30°EBissekty — 41.68°N, 63.82°EBissekty — 40.70°N, 72.60°EHell Creek — 47.64°N, 106.57°WHell Creek — 47.68°N, 106.43°WHell Creek — 47.57°N, 107.10°WHell Creek — 45.55°N, 105.11°WHell Creek — 47.61°N, 106.90°WHell Creek — 45.00°N, 103.19°WJudith River — 48.93°N, 110.58°WJudith River — 46.46°N, 109.41°WJudith River — 46.10°N, 109.10°WJudith River — 48.57°N, 109.73°WKaiparowits — 37.47°N, 111.70°WKaiparowits — 37.69°N, 111.45°WKaiparowits — 37.59°N, 111.80°WKaiparowits — 37.63°N, 111.86°WKaiparowits — 37.40°N, 111.20°WBayan Mandahu — 41.79°N, 106.73°EBayan Mandahu — 41.70°N, 106.76°ECedar Mountain — 39.18°N, 110.11°WCedar Mountain — 38.73°N, 109.59°WCedar Mountain — 38.91°N, 110.11°WFerris — 41.80°N, 107.00°WFerris — 41.94°N, 106.89°WForemost — 49.13°N, 110.87°WForemost — 49.60°N, 111.00°WLance — 41.57°N, 108.67°WLance — 43.44°N, 104.41°WLance — 43.12°N, 104.64°WScollard — 51.86°N, 113.01°WOjo Alamo — 36.17°N, 107.96°WOjo Alamo — 36.34°N, 108.10°WWapiti — 55.26°N, 118.51°WWapiti — 55.07°N, 118.69°WDunvegan — 55.06°N, 120.91°WDunvegan — 55.14°N, 121.24°WDzunbain — 43.88°N, 111.43°EDzunbain — 42.45°N, 102.42°EHuiquanpu — 40.19°N, 114.04°EHuiquanpu — 40.27°N, 114.25°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Ankylosauridae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 46 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 14 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Ankylosauridae and its relatives

Late Cretaceous

Where Ankylosauridae and its relatives were recorded in the Late Cretaceous.

Found in the same rock

901 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 282 sites for Ankylosauridae, and this reads 240 of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

139 references

Each of the 293 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. 127 further references are not listed. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content2

Picture of Ankylosauridae

Credit
IJReid
Licence
CC BY 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itEuankylosauria through timeFormations of the Late CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Brown 1908