Re: Ankylosaurus/ankylosaur

[Stan Friesen <swf@ElSegundoCA.NCR.COM>]

From: Amado Narvaez <anarvaez@umd5.umd.edu>
 > 
 > A check of _The Dinosaur Encyclopedia_ by Lessem & Glut revealed
 > ... There is no picture of Ankylosaurus in the
 > book (pp 34-35). The Euoplocephalus entry (pp 188-189) shows both
 > a reconstruction and the skeleton of this ankylosaur.
 > 
 > ...
 > Am I correct in my impression that the only sharply pointed features
 > on Ankylosaurus were on the head, and that there were no spikes at
 > all on the body?

I am not sure.  The suborder Ankylosauria has two major families,
Ankylosauridae and Nodosauridae.  One has a tail club, but no
lateral spikes.  The other has lateral spikes but no tail club.
I do not remember which is which.  (Euoplocephalus is apparently
also in Ankylosauridae, so it will be the same in this respect).
 > 
 > Why do the better dinosaurs books, like Lambert's and David Norman's
 > _The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs_, prefer ti depict
 > Euoplocephalus  rather than the ankylosaur whose name the public
 > is most familiar with?

One main reason: the known skeletons of Ankylosaurus are less complete.

 > (Speaking of Dr. Norman's book. On page 
 > 164-165 there is a picture of Euoplocephalus and Pinacosaurus.
 > Would I be right in saying that Pinacosaurus looks much more like
 > Ankylosaurus than Euoplocephalus does, since it does not have the shoulder
 > and back spikes?)

Perhaps, I really need to check my references at home on this.

swf@elsegundoca.ncr.com         sarima@netcom.com

The peace of God be with you.