Ankylosaurs may have used their tail clubs to fight each ...

How did ankylosaurs use their tail clubs?

Ankylosaurs are one of the armoured dinosaurs, a group which also includes animals such as Stegosaurus. 

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While stegosaurs often had a spiked structure on the end of their tail, ankylosaurs instead had a hard, bony structure known as a tail club. These structures are uncommon in nature, with only glyptodonts and a group of extinct turtles also known to have evolved them.

This club is generally thought to have been swung at the leg bones of predatory dinosaurs to fend them off. While clubs of any size would have caused injuries, only the largest clubs would have been able to break bones. 

Species such as Anodontosaurus are estimated to have been able to generate forces sufficient to snap living bone, but would have found their tail harder to wield. Meanwhile, ankylosaurs with smaller tail clubs would have been more able to strike quickly even if they were less likely to break bones.  

In general, these clubs have been thought of as purely defensive weapons, as the herbivorous ankylosaurs would not have needed to actively attack other animals. Alternative suggestions, such as the tail acting as a decoy head to draw predators away from the neck, have also been dismissed over the years.

But one theory that hasn't gone away is that the tail club was used in competition between individuals of the same species. Modern giraffes, for instance, use their long necks to strike each other in contests between individuals, and it is possible that ankylosaurs may have done something similar with their tails.

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While it is difficult to directly test this theory, the study of well-preserved specimens in recent years is adding more evidence to support it.

The specimen of Zuul crurivastator was uncovered in in the Judith River Formation of the USA. It was later purchased by the Royal Ontario Museum, Canada, and two of its researchers described the specimen in .

At the time, only the tail and head had been fully excavated, with the specimen's distinctive horns leading the researchers to name its genus after the pop culture character Zuul, a monster from the film Ghostbusters, while its tail club gives the animal its specific name, which translates as 'destroyer of shins'.

Since then, more of the body has been revealed from within the rock, revealing preserved skin and bony armour along its back and sides. Some of the bony plates around the hips are missing parts of their spikes, and appear to have healed in a more blunt shape.

Co-author Dr David Evans says, 'The fact that the skin and armour are preserved in place is like a snapshot of how Zuul looked when it was alive. The injuries it sustained during its lifetime tell us about how it may have behaved and interacted with other animals in its ancient environment.' 

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