throughout the reign of the dinosaurs many iconic animals roam the Earth and perhaps none were as famous as the Tyrannosaurus Rex which lived during the end of the Cretaceous currently It is believed to be not only the largest therapod ever but also the biggest known land carnivore period as a result nearly nothing it lived alongside was safe and Through the Years numerous coexisting animals including the well equipped Triceratops bulky hydrosaurus and Titanic SAR pods have been found with damage believed to have come from a t-rex still despite its clear ability to tackle a wide range of prey there is one dinosaur that has yet to have been found with T-Rex bite marks leading to the idea that not even the T-Rex D to attack this creature this was the Ankylosaurus thanks to its menacing appearance and various portrayals in media the Ankylosaurus has been well known since its Discovery back in the early 1900s when a mix of bones teeth and osteoderms were located in the famous Hell Creek formation of Montana in the US the holotype is believed to have been an adult and shocked paleontologists due to its apparent extensive armoring which quickly prompted its founder to name it the Ankylosaurus meaning the fused lizard this this type specimen was also given the scientific name magnavent meaning great belly of reference to its widened midsection which gave it quite the unusual appearance in fact the Ankylosaurus was so distinct and different from previously found dinosaurs that paleontologist decided that they needed to create an entirely new group for it which they promptly named after it the enchilosa this group of animals is defined as herbivorous dinosaurs the clay orysia who possess small and large bony Shields that were fused together completely covering their back and sides within this group the Ankylosaurus belong to the ankylosaur whose members were further characterized by Massive triangular skulls short necks stiff backs broad bodies and osteoderms in addition to being the first of its kind to be discovered the Ankylosaurus has remained significant in that it's also the largest known ankylosaur thus far with adults measuring anywhere from 5.4 M or 17 ft to 10 m or 33 ft while standing 1.7 m or 5' 7 in at the hips on top of this adults could weigh between 5 and 8 tons making it heavier than the giant Triceratops that lived alongside it and even comparable to the earlier Spinosaurus this fact often confuses people people as to the naked eye both the Triceratops and Spinosaurus appear to be much larger than the Ankylosaurus leading to the question of why was it so heavy despite not necessarily being very long or tall and the answer is quite simple it's because of its extremely robust body the Ankylosaurus was constructed like a living tank possessing short Broad and compressed bones that gave it a good basis for defense which was increased tfold by the presence of bony armor that covered over half of its body this armor added a lot of weight to the enchilosa surus and was composed of knobs and plates of Bones referred to as osteoderms these bony structures would have been embedded within its skin and covered its body from snout to tail varying in size depending on their placement however so far no specimen has been found with its armor in place meaning that paleontologists are not exactly sure how the plates were arranged yet most agree that the larger plates would have likely been concentrated near vulnerable areas like the neck thus granting it the highest level of possible protection additionally it's not quite understood how many osteoderms there were in total with estimates varying from 30 to well over 100 though what paleontologists do know is that the Ankylosaurus possessed very unique and special armored plates that differed from those seen in other Ankylosaurus specifically its osteoderms were thinner than most and had a hollowed Underside and while this may sound worse compared to solid and thicker armor it actually benefited the Ankylosaurus as it granted a higher level of flexibility and made it more resistant to crushing bites like those seen in the T-Rex as the hollowed construction created a dome likee shape which added strength and allowed the Ankylosaurus to endure higher levels of pressure without having the a odms shatter on top of this the Ankylosaurus had yet another defense boost this time through collagen fibers that were randomly placed beneath its armor these fibers were much thicker than the collagen fibers seen in armored living animals today like the crocodile and armadillo and help the Ankylosaurus with Force distribution shock absorption liament and muscle attachment and even growth and repair all in all these fibers coupled with its osteoderms made the enchilosa surus one of if not the toughest animal round in Cretaceous North America with studies finding its armor to have been strong enough to even withstand a small gunfire and along with this impenetrable armor the Ankylosaurus had yet another tool or weapon up its sleeve that made it one tough beast and that is its legendary tail club like the Bony plates that made up its defense the ankylosaurs tail Club was made of osteoderms as well specifically two large ones plus two small osteoderms at the tip and a row of smaller ones at the midline recovered specimens show that this club could reach 57 CM or 22.5 in in width and weighed around 50 lb or 23 kilos this gave it some weight but still kept it light enough for the Ankylosaurus to easily wield which was further helped by the presence of large tail muscles and aifi tendons suggesting it could swing its tail with immense speed generating catastrophic amounts of force in fact a recent study found that large individuals could impact targets with over 20,000 Newtons of force which is more than enough to break bone while another test found that a swung with an Impulse of up to 4,800 Newtons perss in comparison a professional baseball player player only swings at 13 Newtons per second making the tail strike 370 times more powerful this clearly shows it was a potent weapon but for a long time nobody could agree on who the victim of this weapon was and this is still an ongoing debate actually as no therapod or Predator has been found with damaged bones linked to Club strikes leading to the question of if the club was even evolved for defense against predators to begin with and to add to this debate a type of small ankylosaur known as Zuul is documented to have hit others of its own genus during fights that were likely for social dominance leading to the new idea that in kosur clubs were designed primarily for each other however most still believe that the en kyasa surus would have utilized its club for defense against the T-Rex from time to time as reconstructions show it had quite a wide striking range for objects behind it which is where a T-Rex May first appear during an ambush additionally other indirect evidence also supports this conjecture one being that the closest Related Group to the en kyos Soria the stegosaurus had similar weapons which are known to have been used on therapods demonstrated by one example of a Stegosaurus that had impaled an Allosaurus in a rather unfortunate area furthermore several animals alive today are known to have used similar structures against predators despite their primary use being for something unrelated one such example being deer antlers all this points to the idea that the Ankylosaurus could and would use its tail Club against attackers if needed and this coupled with its size and armor made large adults nearly impossible prey for the T-Rex not even to mention other Predators such as the dromeosaur and parasaurs unfortunately however juveniles were not as well defended and were likely targets for Predators as young specimens have shown that during adolescence the armor and tail clubs were not fully formed this meant that for a period of time juveniles could neither break bone with their clubs nor stop large attacks with their armor yet to make up for this en kosur would congregate when young to establish a high ened level of Defense these groups would help decrease the chance of any one individual being singled out though they may not have deterred a fully matured T-Rex however once they reached adulthood this totally changed as despite the common belief ankylosaurs were likely lone rors as adults with their armor and Club alone providing more than enough security and since they did not wander in herds the en kyos surus was not an ecosystem engineer as originally thought meaning that unlike hydrosaurus and living elephants that change Landscapes as they pass through eating vegetation the Ankylosaurus likely to not have the same effect this isn't to say however that the Ankylosaurus was a smalltime eater as it did have a ferocious appetite despite preferring greens its low down body and wide muzzle implies that it fed on the Abundant Ferns and low growing shrubs of the time these food items weren't the most calorically dense resulting in an adult needing to eat 60 kg or 130 lbs of food each day which is similar to the amount eaten by large elephants this number may have been smaller if they kosur ate fruit or certain invertebrates that got caught in the vegetation regardless it's clear that I ate a large amount of food which meant it also needed a good way to process such copious amounts of food and the first way and Tool it used were its teeth its teeth were cusp-like and had interesting protrusions throughout which helped cut vegetation matter into small pieces it also had a narrow beak that easily stripped leaves off of vegetation and once inside its body the Ankylosaurus had yet another unique characteristic that aided in consumption its digestive track which is believed to have operated through hind gut fermentation this process uses the aid of symbiotic bacteria to break down food and is seen in many large herbivorous animals today one example being the Rhino such fermentation requires large Vats so to speak which usually come in the form of widened abdomens and thus the broad midsection of the Ankylosaurus is believed to have been its fermentation vat this digestion technique may have granted it an edge over other herbivores which was only helped by its smelling capabilities the structure of its nasal passages and the large size of its olfactory bulb suggests that I had an exceptional sense of smell that could tell the Ankylosaurus if food was rotten ripe or hidden beneath a thick layer of vegetation additionally its sense of smell was likely its main way of detecting nearby Predators as well as while it did have stereoscopic Vision its eyesight wasn't the greatest and another area that kyasa surus that wasn't the most refined was its speed as its bulky size likely resulted in it being slow moving probably no faster than a walking human with quick bursts only being possible during dire times though thanks to all of its defenses the Ankylosaurus simply did not have to be fast in order to be successful and widespread with fossil discoveries showing that it resided in Northwestern America and Alberta Canada Within These lands it preferred forested flood Plains with relatively subtropical climates such areas were absolutely filled with life like the famed Hell Creek formation thus the Ankylosaurus lived alongside many well-known dinosaurs which along with the T-Rex included Denver sorus Draco Rex pachis sealosaurus platio tholus spero tholus stigo molic torosaurus Triceratops leptoceratops tonos ceratops Edmontosaurus thescelosaurus ornithomimus trior aruncus nanotyrannus struthiomimus anzo aceraptor avisaurus dakotaraptor treds and birds non- dinosaurs were also found on these lands and included insects mollusks frogs salamanders bony fish cardinus fish a mix of terrasaurs turtles lizards snakes champsosaurus crocodil morphs like the Borealis sucus and brachi CSA plus mammals too came in the form of simol lomis sodon simus asadon menisco essis maoda stigmus paradon alidon diodon lepes nanoc curus pralon alac creus and purgatorius this extreme level of diversity was enabled by the presence of large river systems that supported an abundance of angiosperms conifers ferns Moss shrubs and Vines studies on the formation sediment also show that monsoons tropical storms and occasional forest fires kept the ecosystem quite Lively and for the Ankylosaurus the richness of these areas allowed it to thrive from 68 to 66 million years ago although paleontologists have noted that it wasn't the most populous animal around with only 1% of fines in Hell Creek being in kyos saurus this meant it probably didn't have as many offspring and again implies that it was not a social creature its lower numbers may have also played a small role in its demise during the KT Extinction event and its slower nature could have contributed to a rapid ending as well with its home being susceptible to Rapid moving fires from the asteroid impact which was ultimately the only thing that could have ended this tank of a dinosaur but the demise of the Ankylosaurus and other non-avian dinosaur didn't spell the end for giant reptiles forever as new families of reptiles would emerge after the KT Extinction event leading to a family of reptiles that became an absolute Giant and the largest family of reptiles since the Dinosaurs the seeka day and if this sounds interesting check out our video we just made it a couple weeks back and I think you'll find it quite surprising and like always thanks for watching and until next time on Extinct Zoo