page_title: Timeline of ankylosaur research
section_title: 1990s
hierarchical_section_title: Timeline of ankylosaur research / 20th century / 1990s
caption_attribution_description: Wyoming Dinosaur Center
context_page_description: This timeline of ankylosaur research is a chronological listing of events in the history of paleontology focused on the ankylosaurs, quadrupedal herbivorous dinosaurs who were protected by a covering bony plates and spikes and sometimes by a clubbed tail. Although formally trained scientists did not begin documenting ankylosaur fossils until the early 19th century, Native Americans had a long history of contact with these remains, which were generally interpreted through a mythological lens. The Delaware people have stories about smoking the bones of ancient monsters in a magic ritual to have wishes granted and ankylosaur fossils are among the local fossils that may have been used like this. The Native Americans of the modern southwestern United States tell stories about an armored monster named Yeitso that may have been influenced by local ankylosaur fossils. Likewise, ankylosaur remains are among the dinosaur bones found along the Red Deer River of Alberta, Canada where the Piegan people believe that the Grandfather of the Buffalo once lived.
context_section_description: 1990
  Coombs and Maryanska remarked that the boney secondary palate of the ankylosaur skull would have strengthened it by acting as a brace.
  A well-preserved skeleton of Minmi was excavated from the Allaru Formation in Queensland, Australia by the Queensland Museum and catalogued as QM F18101. The skeleton was mostly articulated, including its armor. Since most ankylosaur specimens do not preserve the life arrangement of their armor, QM F18101 represented a rare find. The specimen also preserved the animal's gut contents, the first to be discovered in any armored dinosaur.
  1991
  Lockley argued that the supposed sauropod tracks reported by Ensom from the Purbeck Beds of Dorset, England were actually made by ankylosaurs.
  Frank  DeCourten discovered dinosaur tracks preserved in the Cedar Mountain Formation of Utah that were likely produced by ankylosaurs.
  1993
  Tumanova described the new genus and species Tsagantegia longicranialis.
  Jerzykiewicz and others reported the presence of borings of unknown cause on the bones of some juvenile Pinacosaurus grangeri from Bayan Mandahu, Inner Mongolia, China.
  Z. Dong described the new genus and species Tianchisaurus nedegoaperferima.
  Thulborn proposed that the tail club of ankylosaurs may actually have functioned as a "false head" meant to distract predators. However, this hypothesis has not received much support from the paleontological community, and has been criticized as "dubiou[s]".
  Grady published an illustration of an ankylosaur trackway from the "Mine" site in the Smoky River Coal Mine at Grande Cache, Alberta.
  1994
  Kirkland and Carpenter described the new genus and species Mymoorapelta maysi.
  Psihoyos and Knoebber described a dinosaur track site in the Smoky Hill Coal Mine of Grande Cache, Alberta and reported that the site had been destroyed in a rock slide.
  Whyte and Romano described the new ichnogenus and species Deltapodus brodericki for dinosaur footprints discovered in the Aalenian-Bajocian Saltwick Formation of Yorkshire, England. The authors attributed the tracks to sauropods, but they may actually have been made by ankylosaurs.
  Leonardi concluded that the Bolivian Ligabuichnium tracks were made by an ankylosaur after all.
  1995
  Carpenter, Dilkes, and Weishampel erected the new genus Niobrarasaurus to house the species Hierosaurus coleii.
  Coombs studied the anatomy of the tail of Euoplocephalus and concluded that its club was held just slightly off the ground rather than dragging or held and a significant height. He reiterated observations previously made in 1977 by Maryanska that the fusion of the vertebral centra near the tip of the animal's tail would make it difficult to raise very high.
  Coombs described the new genus and species Texasetes pleurohalio.
  1996
  Lee described the new genus and species Pawpawsaurus campbelli.
  Molnar reported the existence of a second species of Minmi but did not name it.
  Blows described the new species Polacanthus rudgwickensis.
  1997
  Witmer studied archosaur "craniofacial pneumaticity". He concluded that rather than performing a biological function, paranasal sinuses in archosaurs "are best explained as an optimization of skull architecture". This cast doubt on various researchers' interpretations of the sometimes complex nasal cavities and sinus systems possessed by ankylosaurs. Past workers had thought that these cavities and sinuses may have given ankylosaurs an improved sense of smell, housed glands, acted as a resonating chamber for loud vocalizations, or helped conserve body heat and moisture.
  1998
  Carpenter, Miles, and Cloward described the new genus and species Gargoyleosaurus parkpinorum.
  Kirkland described the new genus and species Gastonia burgei.
  Pang and Cheng described the new genus and species Tianzhenosaurus youngi.
  Barret and others described the new genus and species Shanxia tianzhensis.
  Sereno defined the ankylosaurs as all eurypods more closely related to Ankylosaurus than to Stegosaurus.
  McCrea and Currie described the dinosaur tracks discovered in the Smoky River Coal Mine at Grand Cache, Alberta. They noted that this 
caption: Skeletal reconstruction of Mymoorapelta at the Wyoming Dinosaur Center
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