Definition of ANKYLOSAURUS

Examples of ankylosaurus in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web The ankylosaurus was not the only prehistoric beast to have an intimidating backside. — Nicholas St. Fleur, New York Times, "Where Did Animals With Tail Weapons Go? Here’s a Back Story," 16 Jan. 2018 And the bat and club were iconic features seen in both ankylosaurus and the glyptodons, which were ancient boulder-sized armadillos. — Nicholas St. Fleur, New York Times, "Where Did Animals With Tail Weapons Go? Here’s a Back Story," 16 Jan. 2018

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History and Etymology for ankylosaurus

borrowed from New Latin, from Greek ankýlos "bent, crooked, curved" + -saurus -saurus — more at angle entry 3

Note: The genus name was introduced by the American paleontologist Barnum Brown (1872-1963) in "The Ankylosauridæ, a new family of armored dinosaurs from the Upper Cretaceous," Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, vol. 24 (1908), pp. 187-201. Brown provides no explanation of the name. It is possible that ankylo- alludes not to the literal meaning of the Greek word, but rather to the medical term ankylosis in the sense "fusion of bones," given that one of what Brown considered "striking features" of the animal is that "posterior ribs [are] coössified to vertebræ."

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