Pinacosaurus

What it was like

Pinacosaurus was an armored plant eater about 5 meters (16 feet) long, with a low, wide body covered in bony plates and a club at the end of its tail. It was lighter and more slender than its big North American cousin Ankylosaurus.

Its world

It lived about 86 to 72 million years ago, in the Late Cretaceous, in what is now Mongolia and China. Its homeland was dry, with sand dunes, and its bones come from rocks such as the Djadokhta and Bayan Mandahu formations. It shared that world with Protoceratops and the small feathered hunter Velociraptor.

How it was found

Gilmore named Pinacosaurus in 1933. With 22 recorded finds, it is one of the best known armored dinosaurs. Many of the skeletons are young animals found close together, which suggests that the young may have lived in groups.