Ankylosauria

Ankylosaurs; Temporal range: ; Middle Jurassic—Late Cretaceous,
	Four ankylosaurs. Clockwise from top left: Gastonia (a polacanthine), Kunbarrasaurus (a parankylosaur), Borealopelta (a nodosaurid), and Akainacephalus (an ankylosaurid)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Reptilia
Clade:	Dinosauria
Clade:	†Ornithischia
Clade:	†Thyreophora
Clade:	†Eurypoda
Clade:	†Ankylosauria; Osborn, 1923
Subgroups
Genera of uncertain affinity
	†Cryptosaurus; †Dracopelta; †Jakapil?; †Minmi; †Mymoorapelta; †Sarcolestes; †Serendipaceratops?; †Sinankylosaurus?; †Spicomellus; †Stegosaurides?; †Tianchisaurus; †Vectipelta;
Synonyms
	Ankylosauromorpha Carpenter, 2001;

Ankylosauria is a group of herbivorous dinosaurs of the clade Ornithischia. It includes the great majority of dinosaurs with armor in the form of bony osteoderms, similar to turtles. Ankylosaurs were bulky quadrupeds, with short, powerful limbs. They are known to have first appeared in North Africa during the Middle Jurassic, and persisted until the end of the Late Cretaceous. The two main families of ankylosaurians, Nodosauridae and Ankylosauridae primarily originated from the Northern Hemisphere (North America, Europe and Asia). The more basal Parankylosauria originated from southern Gondwana (South America, Australia and Antarctica) during the Cretaceous period, though it has been suggested that this group is a separate lineage of thyreophorans outside both Ankylosauria and Stegosauria.

Ankylosauria was first named by Henry Fairfield Osborn in 1923. In the Linnaean classification system, the group is usually considered either a suborder or an infraorder. It is contained within the group Thyreophora, which also includes the stegosaurs, armored dinosaurs known for their combination of plates and spikes.