An in-depth study of dinosaur armour has revealed an unexpected new level of strength, with some plates having a weave of fibres resembling today’s bulletproof fabrics. The likely strength of such plates makes the dinosaurs studied - ankylosaurs - perhaps the best-protected creatures to have ever stalked the Earth.Ankylosaurs were massive herbivores that grew up to 10 metres in length during the late Jurassic and Cretaceous periods. The coin-sized plates sported by the ankylosaurs fully covered their back, neck, head and even protected their eyes.“Their whole lifestyle was connected with this armoured living, which improved defence against predators. Other dinosaurs would have to be really hungry to attack an ankylosaur,” says lead researcher Torsten Scheyer at the University of Bonn, Germany.Like other armoured animals - such as crocodiles and turtles - the bonelike plates were actually derived from skin and called osteoderms. While scientists have been fascinated with dinosaur armour for years, few studies have looked at the microstructure of their constituent minerals and proteins. Scheyer, along with his doctoral supervisor Martin Sander, took samples of body plates from each of the three groups of ankylosaur species: polocanthids, thought to be the earliest ankylosaurs, nodosaurids and ankylosaurids. For comparison, armour plates from a stegosaur species and an ancient crocodile were also examined.The researchers viewed thin sections of each plate with polarised light to highlight the mineralised traces left by bone and by fibres of collagen. Collagen is the tough protein that anchors armour plates to skin and also provides a framework on which the plates can grow. Compared to stegosaurus or crocodile plates, the polocanthids had extra collagen fibres that may have stabilised the edges of individual plates.
View: Full Article | Source: New Scientist