Outline: a typical ankylosaur
Saichania
sigh-CHAN-ee-a
"beautiful one"
- Lived
- 101 to 72 million years ago, Late Cretaceous
- Diet
- Herbivore
- Length
- about 6.6 m (22 ft)
- Group
- Ankylosaurs, Ankylosauridae
- Found in
- Mongolia and China
- Named by
- Maryanska 1977
Size comparison
To scale
Scale in metersOutline: typical ankylosaur shape
Where its fossils were found
The evidence
Today
90 million years ago
Field notes
About Saichania
What it was like
Saichania was an ankylosaur, a low, heavily armored plant eater with a bony club on its tail. It was about 6.6 meters (22 feet) long. Its skull was covered in bumpy armor, and even its belly had bony plates.
Its world
It lived in the Late Cretaceous, in what is now Mongolia. Its fossils come from the Baruungoyot Formation, a dry land of dunes and oases, shared with the dromaeosaur Shri, the armored Tarchia and the small bird-like Avimimus.
How it was found
Maryanska named Saichania in 1977. Its name is Mongolian and refers to its well preserved skeleton.
Lived alongside
Found in the same rock formations
Close relatives
Other members of Ankylosauridae
Sources: WikidataNamed in: T. Maryanska. 1977. Ankylosauridae (Dinosauria) from Mongolia. Palaeontologia Polonica 37:85-151