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.

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.