Ankylosauridae
| Ankylosaurids Temporal range: 160–66 mya
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| Skeleton of Scolosaurus thronus, Senckenberg Museum | |
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| Family: | †Ankylosauridae Brown, 1908
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Ankylosauridae is a family of any armoured dinosaur which evolved 125 million years ago and became extinct 65 million years ago during the Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction event. Ankylosauridae and their sister group, the Nodosauridae make up the infraorder Ankylosauria.
They have been found in western North America, Europe and East Asia. Good specimens are rare; most are known only from fragments, and bits of their armour.
Scelidosaurus, whose remains had been found in England, was described by Richard Owen in 1861. Its exact position in the group is still not yet agreed. It was a largely quadrupedal armoured animal from the Lower Jurassic, feeding on low scrubby plants. This is pretty much a description of many dinosaurs in this group.
Taxonomy
[change | change source]- Infraorder Ankylosauria
- Family Ankylosauridae
- Ahshislepelta
- Aletopelta
- Cedarpelta
- Gobisaurus
- Minotaurasaurus
- Shamosaurus
- Tatankacephalus
- Subfamily Ankylosaurinae
- Subfamily Polacanthinae
- Family Ankylosauridae