Dinosaur Armour Under The Microscope

Scientists in Germany have been studying dinosaur armour, and have come up with some surprise results.

This is Torsten, the scientist who discovered why the dinosaur's armour was so strong and flexible.

Photo: Frank Luerweg / Uni Bonn

Just in case you have a picture in your mind of shiny, metal dino-shaped helmets or GIGANTIC chain mail suits…. think again! The word 'armour' is used to describe the hard, bony shell that some dinosaurs were covered with, rather like a crocodile's scaly skin or a tortoise's shell.

Some of the best-protected dinosaurs were the plant-eating (herbivorous) ankylosauruses. They lived about 70 million years ago. They were almost entirely covered in armour - even their eyelids were made of bone.

Wow - you wouldn't want to make an ankylosaurus angry, would you?!

© The Natural History Museum

A palaeontologist called Torsten Scheyer from the University of Bonn has been looking at ankylosaurus fossils under a very strong microscope. He's been able to work out exactly how the armour was made and how strong it would have been.

Torsten found that one type of ankylosaurus armour was made in exactly the same way as the materials for bullet-proof vests are made nowadays. So, strangely enough, dinosaurs were ahead of our brainiest scientists by millions of years!

Torsten made a model of how the dinosaur armour was made - why don't you try making your own model, and let us know about it?

Photo: Frank Luerweg / Uni Bonn

The armour is made up of layers, with something called 'collagen' woven through the bone. Collagen is a type of protein, which we have in our bodies too.

The layers were piled on top of each other, with strings of collagen in each layer criss-crossing at right angles to the layers above and below. This criss-crossing is one reason why their armour was so strong.

Torsten was also able to see that each dinosaur's armour was made up of hundreds of thousands of plates of bone. These were called ostoederms. Unlike the plates of bone on a tortoise shell though, these plates weren't joined together, so they were flexible.

If something is 'flexible' it can move, or bend, a little. This meant that the dinosaur armour would have been less likely to break when it was put under pressure than if it was one big, hard surface.

Full of fascinating facts - check out the Dino Directory!

© The Natural History Museum

If you would like to find out more about ankylosauruses, take a look at The Natural History Museum's Dinosaur Directory. It's packed with pictures and info.

If you're in a sciency or arty mood, how about doing your own dinosaur armour experiment? You could have a go at weaving together some strips of material or paper in different ways and test out the strongest designs.

If you do have a go, remember to tell us about your experiment using our 'Get in Touch' page.

The Natural History Museum, London