Huge Armored Dinosaur Scute. Ankylosaurus was the largest armored dinosaur (up to 30 feet long) looking something like a tank on legs with large osteoderms (scutes) covering its entire upper body and also a club on its tail which was also formed by combining a number of osteoderms joined together. Even though Ankylosaurus is a very famous dinosaur, no complete specimens have ever been found. Mostly just broken armored scutes are found. This lot contains one of the largest solid complete back scutes found being 5 x 4.5 inches. This osteoderm was even larger in life being covered in tough horny keratin (the same substance that covers our fingernails. This chocolate brown osteoderm is greatly detailed with ridges that allowed blood to flow into the bone and has some expert restoration on one of the sides that exactly matches in both color and texture. This unusual fossil was found in the 65-66 million year old Hell Creek Formation on private land of West-Central South Dakota.
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Estimated Value $400 - 500.
Fossils
