e Prehistoric Museum is home to three mounted Many herbivores, such as elephants and cows, have Animantarx ramaljonesi armor-plated ankylosaurs skeletons: Gastonia bur- a similar system. gei, Animantarx ramaljonesi, and Peloroplites ced- romontanus. ese skeletons were collected within 150 miles of the museum. ey lived 130-100 mil- lion years ago, making eastern Utah one of the rich- est places for Early Cretaceous ankylosaurs. eir descendants became extinct 66 million years ago during the Great Dinosaur Die-o . Ankylosaurs were four-legged, heavily armored di- nosaurs. is armor consisted of spines or spikes along the sides of the neck, body and tail, and vari- Animantarx is the rst dinosaur to be discovered ous sized keeled plates over the rest of the body. One by technology alone. Dinosaur bones are slightly Scienti c Name: Animantarx ramaljonesi group, called the ankylosaurids, had large plates radioactive and in 1999, Ramal Jones, a retired Uni- Pronounced: AN-ih-MAN-tarks that fused together to make a club on the end of versity of Utah radiologist, used a sensitive Geiger Name Meaning: “living fortress” the tail. Even the belly of ankylosaurs was armored, counter to accidentally discover the bones just be- Time Period: 102 to 99 Million Years Ago (MYA) with marble-sized bone. Ankylosaur armor formed low the ground surface.. Early Cretaceous in the skin like it does in crocodiles. Length: 10 feet Not much is known about Animantarx consider- Height: 3 1/2 feet ing that this is the only specimen known and not Weight: 1,000 pounds all of the skeleton was found. Ray Jones found the Diet: Herbivore lower jaw, the back half of the skull, vertebrae from Places Found: Utah the neck and back and parts of both front and hind Discoverer: Prehistoric Museum legs. ese bones were enough to identify the lit- tle dinosaur as related to the gigantic Peloroplites. Both belong to the family Nodosauridae, the group of armoured dinosaurs characterized by a peculiar shoulder blade and no club on the end of the tail. Knowing this relationship, we can infer that Ani- mantarx had rows of bone plates or armor embed- e teeth are small for the size of the head and are ded in its skin. Also, that it was a plant eater although 155 East Main Street best suited for eating plants. To help digest their we do not have its teeth. is information was then Price, Utah food, ankylosaurs have a wide pelvis that holds used to reconstruct the rest of the skeleton, with the 435-637-5060 or 800-817-9949 an enormously large gut. Bacteria break down the missing bones modeled a er closely related species. usueastern.edu/museum plant, releasing the nutrients that are then absorbed. .