Outline: a typical ankylosaur
Animantarx
an-ih-MAN-tarks
"living citadel"
- Lived
- 121 to 101 million years ago, Early Cretaceous
- Diet
- Herbivore
- Group
- Ankylosaurs, Nodosauridae
- Found in
- United States
- Named by
- Carpenter et al. 1999
Where its fossils were found
The evidence
Today
110 million years ago
Field notes
About Animantarx
What it was like
Animantarx was a small nodosaur, an armored plant eater with plates across its back but no tail club. It is known from part of the skull and skeleton, and was probably no more than a few meters long.
Its world
It lived in the Cretaceous in what is now Utah, in the United States. Its bones come from the Cedar Mountain Formation.
How it was found
Carpenter and colleagues named Animantarx in 1999. Its bones were found in an unusual way: a scientist spotted them with a radiation detector, since the bones had picked up traces of radioactive minerals from the rock.
Lived alongside
Found in the same rock formations
Close relatives
Other members of Nodosauridae
Sources: WikidataNamed in: K. Carpenter, J. I. Kirkland, and D. Burge, J. Bird. 1999. Ankylosaurs (Dinosauria: Ornithischia) of the Cedar Mountain Formation, Utah, and their stratigraphic distribution. Vertebrate Paleontology in Utah, D. D. Gillette (ed.), Utah Geological Survey Miscellaneous Publication 99-1:243-251