Ankylosaurus Facts for Kids
an-KYE-loh-SORE-us · its name means “fused lizard”
A plant-eater covered in bony armour, with a club on its tail.
- 📏 33 ft10 m1 long
- ⚖️ 4 to 8 tons3.6 to 7.3 tonnes1
- 🕰️ 66 to 68 million years ago66 to 68 million years ago1
- 🍽️ plants
Ankylosaurus was covered in hard plates, like armour. Its tail ended in a big bony club. It ate plants.
Ankylosaurus was built like a tank: low, wide and covered in bony plates and spikes. Even its eyelids had bone in them. At the end of its tail was a heavy club of bone it could swing.
Its name means fused lizard, because so many of its bones were joined together into armour. It lived at the very end of the age of dinosaurs, alongside T. rex and Triceratops. Its tail club was made of bony plates fused together, with a stiff tail behind it like a handle.
Every dinosaur number is scientists’ best guess from bones, so each one says where it came from.
How big was Ankylosaurus?
Ankylosaurus in numbers
| Length (nose to tail) | 33 ft10 m1up to; scientists' estimate |
|---|---|
| Height at the hips | 5.2 to 5.6 ft1.6 to 1.7 m1at the hips |
| Weight | 4 to 8 tons3.6 to 7.3 tonnes1scientists' estimate |
| When it lived | 66 to 68 million years ago66 to 68 million years ago1the Late Cretaceous |
| What it ate | low plants such as ferns |
| Fossils found in | western North America |
| What kind | an ankylosaur: an armoured plant-eater |
Wow!
- Even its eyelids had bone in them.
- Its tail ended in a heavy club of bone.
- It lived alongside T. rex and Triceratops.
🦴 Ankylosaurus’s bones
Books about Ankylosaurus, free at the library
Ask a grown-up to tap the button: it shows where to borrow a book about Ankylosaurus for free.
Where was the land back then?
The continents were in different places when Ankylosaurus lived, 66 to 68 million years ago. Open Planet Earth, pick Drifting continents, and slide back in time to see where the land was.
🦖 Ride a Ankylo in Dino DashThe game’s rare Star Ankylo is a made-up version of this animal.
Its neighbours in time
Where these numbers come from
- USDA Forest Service, Dakota Prairie Grasslands: prehistoric animals, checked 30 October 2026.
- Wikidata, Ankylosaurus (Q40621), checked 30 October 2026.
To read more: the Natural History Museum’s Dino Directory (see also, not copied).