Euoplocephalus: Encyclopedia II - Euoplocephalus - Environment

Euoplocephalus - Environment

Euoplocephalus lived between 65 and 70 million years ago, in the Campanian and Maastrichian ages of the late Cretaceous period.

Euoplocephalus was plant eating (herbivorous) dinosaur. It had a complicated nose design (nasal structure), which indicates that it probably had a good sense of smell, and flexible legs which it might have used for digging. The stiff, low-slung dinosaur had poor teeth (weak dentition), so it must have grazed on fleshy low-lying vegetation, and shallow tubers.

All the skeletons discovered have been isolated, so the conventional wisdom is that all ankylosaurids were solitary. However the discovery of a herd of 22 young Pinacosaurus was announced in 1988, which indicates that Euoplocephalus may have displayed herd behavior, at least as a juvenile.

Only the underbelly of the Euoplocephalus was unarmored. Like a porcupine, flipping it over may have been the only way to harm it. A survey of dinosaur bones in Alberta, Canada supports this, showing many bite marks on dinosaurs like the unarmored Hadrosaurus, but none on the ankylosaurids. There is some speculation, however, that the incredible biting power of the Tyrannosaurus may have ultimately led to the species' extinction. This may have been risky because a swing of the tail could cause massive damage if it hit a predator in the stomach, or knocked its legs out.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Environment", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki