Outline: a typical ankylosaur
Tarchia
TAR-kee-uh
"brainy one"
Type species Tarchia kielanae
- Lived
- 84 to 66 million years ago, Late Cretaceous
- Diet
- Herbivore
- Length
- about 5.5 m (18 ft)
- Group
- Ankylosaurs, Ankylosauridae
- Found in
- Mongolia
- Named by
- Maryanska 1977
Size comparison
To scale
Scale in metersOutline: typical ankylosaur shape
Where its fossils were found
The evidence
Today
75 million years ago
Field notes
About Tarchia
What it was like
Tarchia was an armored plant eater about 5.5 meters (18 feet) long. Bony plates covered its broad back, and a heavy club tipped its tail. Its skull was wide and strongly built, with small horns at the back corners.
Its world
It lived in the Late Cretaceous in what is now Mongolia. Its bones come from the Nemegt and Baruungoyot formations. In the wetter Nemegt landscape it shared the land with the huge predator Tarbosaurus, the long-clawed Therizinosaurus and the ostrich-like Gallimimus.
How it was found
Maryanska named Tarchia in 1977. The type species is Tarchia kielanae. The name refers to its large braincase, which seemed bigger than that of a related ankylosaur.
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