Meet Anky!

Good for sharing with little readers

Anky’s adventure offers a gentle way to talk about not wanting a good day to end. Ask your child what they enjoyed today and what little adventure they might look forward to tomorrow.

Discover Dinosaur Bedtime, or find calm family ideas in our bedtime routine article.

About the real Ankylosaurus

Ankylosaurus lived in the Late Cretaceous, around 68–66 million years ago, in what is now North America. It walked on four legs and was a herbivore: a plant-eating dinosaur. A large adult could be around eight metres long. Picture eight metre-long spaces laid out in a row to imagine its size.

Bony armour covered much of its body, and a heavy club sat at the end of its tail. Scientists think the club probably helped defend it against large predators. Its mouth had a beak at the front and teeth for dealing with plant food. Look for the low body, armour and club when spotting Ankylosaurus in a dinosaur picture.

No complete Ankylosaurus skeleton has been found, so some details, including the exact arrangement of its back armour, remain uncertain. Not every armoured dinosaur had a tail club. Our playful Anky’s building, tools and bedtime adventures are imaginative character traits, rather than things we know from fossils.

Explore more with the Natural History Museum’s Ankylosaurus guide.