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Why did some dinos have armor?

Four types of thyreophorans

Scutellosaurus

One of the earliest thyreophorans, Scutellosaurus could walk on two legs and had a long taił. It had parallel rows of smali scutes along its body and taił.

During the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods, a group of dinosaurs called thyreophorans evolved. Virtually all thyreophorans were four-legged plant eaters that ate low-growing plants.

What madę thyreophorans unusual was that they possessed rows of armored plates (scutes) that ran along their necks, backs, and tails.

Scelidosaurus

Larger and heavier than Scutellosaurus, Scelidosaurus walked on all fours all of the time Its rows of plates covered morę of its body.

Thyreopnoran

skulls

3.6 ft

(1.1 m) Length of the longest spike on the stegosaur Loricatosaurus

2 ft

(60 cm) Width of the biggest ankylosaur taił Club

17

The number of plates on the neck back, and taił of Stegosaurus

900

The number of Kentrosaurus bones discovered in Tendaguru,

Tanzania

01:

All thyreophorans, including this H uayangosa urus, had beaklike mouths

718

megapascals

02: Unlike most reptiles, thyreophorans had cheeks.

The estimated force of a blow from a big ankylosaur taił club enough to break bonę!

03:

Stegosaur skulls were long and narrow. The animals were picky feeders, choosing the best leaves and fruit.

04:

Stegosaurs

Famous for their arching backs and cluster of deadly taił spikes, stegosaurs such as Kentrosaurus had two rows of plates or spikes.

Ankylosaurs

Edmontonia was one of the ankylosaurs—the tanks of the dinosaur world. It had a broad body dotted with scutes, stout limbs, and a distinctive, bony skuli

Ankylosaurs had wide muzzles and probably took broad mouthfuls of vegetation.

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05:

Some ankylosaurs had bony loops in their snouts. Perhaps these madę their calls louder

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06:

Thyreophoran teeth were smali, with large serrated edges.

Until the discovery of Miragaia in 2009, stegosaurs were seen as short-necked grazers. Miragaia had 17 neck vertebrae—morę than most sauropods. With this long neck, it could have reached up into foliage 10 ft (3 m) off the ground.

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