NAME

Meaning - Pinacosaurus means “plank lizard”
Pronounced - PIN-ah-co-SAWR-us
Named By - Charles Gilmore
When Named - 1933
DIET

Herbivore (plant-eater)
SIZE

Length - 18 ft (5.5 m) long
Height - 2 ft (60 cm) tall at the hips
Weight - ?
WHEN IT LIVED

Late Cretaceous period, about 81-85 million years ago
WHERE IT LIVED

Fossils have been found in Mongolia, Asia.
FOSSILS

Over 35 incomplete fossils have been found, many in large bonebeds, indicating that Pinacosaurus may had roamed in herds.
CLASSIFICATION
  • Kingdom Animalia (animals)
  • Phylum Chordata (having a hollow nerve chord ending in a brain)
  • Class Archosauria (diapsids with socket-set teeth, etc.)
  • Order Ornithischia - beaked, bird-hipped dinosaurs that were plant-eaters
  • Suborder Thyreophora - armored dinosaurs
  • Superfamily Ankylosauria - tank-like dinosaurs covered with bony plates
  • Family Ankylosauridae - with tail clubs
  • Genus Pinacosaurus
  • Species P. grangeri (type species named by Gilmore, 1933)
INTERESTING FACTS

Pinacosaurus was a medium-sized, armored, beaked, quadruped with a slender build. It had a tail club, bony spikes along its back and tail, but didn’t have armor on its snout. Pinacosaurus had flared nostrils, four large hoof-covered toes on its front feet and five toes on each of its rear feet.