Ankylosaurs competed for mates with club combat

Ankylosaurs might have used their enormous tail clubs to bash each other in battle over potential mates, rather than to ward off predators such as Tyrannosaurus rex. Researchers who analysed several Zuul crurivastator fossils (translation: ‘Zuul the shin-destroyer’) discovered that the spikes covering the animals’ bodies were often broken and half-healed around the hips. Since these scars were found only where another ankylosaurid club could have reached, the tail clubs were probably used for ritualistic combat, similar to how deer use their antlers.