Day 20: When I was a kid, I had a little plastic toy Polacanthus foxii. It was one of my favourites. The current models don't look much like mine did back then! One of the great things about science is how it moves forward, but it doesn't do to get too attached to a particular image of a dinosaur, because even ten years can see them completely reimagined, let alone thirty-plus years.
An ankylosaur, Polacanthus was originally found on the Isle of Wight (further specimens have since been found elsewhere in Europe). It dates from the early Cretaceous period, around 125 million years ago, and although not many specimens are known, we do know that it was armour-plated, as were all the ankylosaurs, and had some spikes as well for good measure. It would have been an herbivorous quadruped, probably about five metres long, slow-moving, and very well defended against predators. It probably wasn't invulnerable, but it can't have made for easy eating!
An ankylosaur, Polacanthus was originally found on the Isle of Wight (further specimens have since been found elsewhere in Europe). It dates from the early Cretaceous period, around 125 million years ago, and although not many specimens are known, we do know that it was armour-plated, as were all the ankylosaurs, and had some spikes as well for good measure. It would have been an herbivorous quadruped, probably about five metres long, slow-moving, and very well defended against predators. It probably wasn't invulnerable, but it can't have made for easy eating!
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ETA: *reads your post properly* Ah, so it was even a native if so, then! (I don't think they all were!)
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The internet is pretty amazing, really. I don't know if all of those were there in the 1980s, though. But most of them definitely. The two things I remmeber the most were the dinosaur models - I think because they were just random (fibreglass!) things and you could touch and poke and climb on them, and the Wild West tombstones full of bad puns of the sort my family enjoyed.
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