What is Acanthopolis?
Q: What is Acanthopolis?
A: Acanthopolis is an armoured ankylosaurian dinosaur.
Q: How did Acanthopolis get its name?
A: Acanthopolis got its name from the Greek words "akantha" which means spiny, and "polis" which means scales.
Q: What did Acanthopolis look like?
A: Acanthopolis was a plant-eating dinosaur that had armour in rows of oval plates set into its skin. It also had spikes jutting out of its neck and shoulder area along the spine. It was about 15 feet long (4 m) and weighed roughly 380 kg.
Q: When was the first specimen of Acanthopolis found?
A: The first specimen of Acanthopolis was found in 1865 by fossil collector John Griffiths on the shoreline at Folkestone.
Q: What was the formation in which the Acanthopolis specimen was found?
A: The Acanthopolis specimen was found in the Cambridge Greensand formation in the Lower Cretaceous of southern England.
Q: What was England like during the time of Acanthopolis?
A: During the time of Acanthopolis, England was part of a huge tropical river delta, and the Greensand was laid down just offshore.
Q: How did the bodies of dinosaurs like Acanthopolis end up in the sea?
A: The bodies of dinosaurs like Acanthopolis ended up in the sea because they were on the shoreline or the river delta, and sometimes their bodies washed out to sea.
