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Perhaps most significantly, the paleontological team argues that ankylosaurs may have been built to dig. That skeletal rigidity would have stabilized the animal when it was digging with its forelimbs, they wrote, and the slight curve to its toes would have given its front feet a trowel-like shape. The authors don’t suggest that ankylosaurs were burrowing animals, per se—more that, when facing off with a ferocious theropod, they could dig trench-like depressions and hunker down, with just their bony skin exposed to the surface. Lee likens this behavior to modern horned lizards.
“We are curious whether young ankylosaurs were also capable of digging,” Lee said. “Baby ankylosaurs lack extensive body armor on their bodies, and this must have made them vulnerable to predators. If the babies could dig, then dwelling in underground spaces seems possible, like armadillos do today.”
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