Ankylosaurs Had Composite Armor

An anonymous reader writes "Ankylosaurs were the most heavily armored dinosaurs. Researchers thought their protective plates were a lot like modern crocodiles. But a new study by a University of Bonn grad student Torsten Scheyer found that fibers in the plates were woven for strength and lightness much like Kevlar or fiberglass. Good thing, as ankylosaurs had to contend with T. rex."

Comments

how do they know what it was made of?

[jstave]

I understand how they can talk about the structure of the armor, but, given that these are fossils, and therefore have had their organic substance replaced by minerals, how do they know what the structure was composed of?

Nitpick

[SimianOverlord]

had to contend with T Rex

Not so. The Tyrannosaurus Rex was, according to consensus of scientific opinion, a opportunistic scavenger rather than an out and out predator, despite what films such as Jurassic Park portray. Heavy plate armour is so successful a defense mechanism, you might wonder why many more species don't utilise it.

This just goes to show that Nature, with a decent head start, can produce some pretty spectacular materials, an example that springs to mind is Morpho menelaus a butterfly with striking laser-blue irridescent wings, which uses an optical trick to make them shine so brightly. I was always fascinated by a little tray my father had when I was a kid, which was just the top side of the wings of these butterflies pressed under glass. I had a hard time believing it was from an organic being. Anyway, you can't get things like that anymore (I've looked) which is probably due to them having to be a protected species. Shame on all of us really, for hunting these creatures to near extinction, like the dinosaurs.

Re:Nitpick

[museumpeace]

...Heavy plate armour is so successful a defense mechanism, you might wonder why many more species don't utilise it.
Glyptodon is an extinct mammal from south america that died out in the pliestocene...I saw one at the Peabody museum at Harvard and good lord was it ever armored. if it simply squatted so its shell rested on the ground, you couldn't hurt it with guns or cars, it bore so massive a shell. And so I had to ask the same question you pose: This looks invincible, a veritable Hummer of a beast, so why the die-off? My speculation is, that like any SUV or heavily armored vehicle, it needs tons of food just to get through a normal day...any upset to the climate such as cold or drought and it starves to death while the more nimble and adaptable critters get by some how.

Re: Ankylosaurus?

[Black Parrot]

> Better call it Puteosaurus then.

ped- is the root you're looking for, though the site you linked thinks pedere means the same thing as pedare.

Modern materials

[mdielmann]

It's worth noting that your teeth get their strength from the same technique. Short story, your teeth are made from the same material as bone, but it's woven, leaving them stronger than bones.

Re:Consensus?

[SimianOverlord]

OK, good points. The two modern creatures I would compare them to are the hyena and the rhinoceros. Rhinoceroses are largely ignored by hyenas, as Ankylosaurus was (probably) largely ignored by T Rex.

OK, the comparison isn't perfect, but its the best I could think of. Hyena's aren't the greatest comparator either; they tend to hunt in packs whereas T Rex was thought to be a solitary hunter, so would certainly kill more prey than scavenge from other killers.

Man, that movie's science sucked. The whole move from DNA to organism, using amphibious DNA allows gender swapping dinosaurs...still, it was entertaining. Perhaps I'm biased because I have it to blame for several sleepless nights, being chased by raptors /T Rex is no fun at all, scavenger or not.

Re:Consensus?

[avgjoe62]

Actually, T-Rex is most likely a pack hunter

And hunting together in packs implies more predation than scavenging. It is thought that younger members of a T-Rex family group would drive prey torwards the massive jaws of the slower moving adults.

Think more of a wolf pack.