Terra Nova Wiki
Terra Nova Wiki
  • In reality, Ankylosaurus fossils are only known from the very end of the Cretaceous, 66-65 million years ago, about 20 million years after the time Terra Nova is set. Other types of Ankylosaurs did live earlier, but Malcolm Wallace specifically referred to it as an "Ankylosaurus", not just an "ankylosaur". So one would have to suppose that in the world of the show, Ankylosaurus evolved considerably earlier than any of the fossils that have been found to date. (but fossils do only contain about 10% of what lived 85mya, Ankylosaurus fossils may not have survived from this time period or may have to be found)
  • Also, although other types of ankylosaurs lived in South America (see here), Ankylosaurus fossils are only known from North America while Carnotaurus fossils are only known from South America, and the two continents had separated from each other in the Jurassic. One way to rationalize them coexisting in the same area would be to point to what paleontologists call a "faunal interchange", where in the late Cretaceous some animals previously unique to the Northern Hemisphere began to appear in South America, suggesting that a land bridge (similar to modern Central America) had formed between the two continents (see the discussion starting at the bottom of p. 322 here, or p. 399 here, or the right column on p. 243 here). This faunal interchange is only thought to have happened in the Campanian and Maastrichtian ages (the last two ages of the Cretaceous), from 83.5 million years ago to 65.5 million years ago, but this is only slightly after the time of Terra Nova 85 million years ago, so one could imagine the interchange began a little before it's known from the fossil record. In this scenario it could be that Terra Nova is in North America and Carnotaurus had migrated North, or that it's in South America and Ankylosaurus had migrated South (though again, there is no actual evidence that these two dinosaurs crossed the land bridge).
  • The fact that the animal in question is named Ankylosaurus may be because of misconception in part of the experts or due to cheap language, as maybe the scientists do know that this is not an Ankylosaurus but rather an ankylosaur or ankylosaurid, and just dropped the name of the type genus.
  • Although no definite genus of ankylosaur is known from South America, the existence of Antarctopelta, from Antarctica, may indicate that ankylosaurs were present in surrounding continents. The ankylosaur in the show possesses a tail club, which may indicate it is an ankylosaurid instead of a nodosaurid. If it is an ankylosaurid, it probably found a way to cross into the southern continent, either by a land bridge or by swimming (Liaoningosaurus is believed to have been aquatic). Another possibility is that a South American nodosaurid developed a tail club as a result of convergent evolution, resembling an ankylosaurid, even though it wasn't descended from them.
  • Ecological speculations: since all Ankylosauria feed on low-lying plants and this one is likely no exception even troth that the head shape is slightly different from other Ankylosaur. like all Ankylosaur the armor back is use to protect itself from predators like Carnotaurus, Allosaur and maybe even the Empirosaur. the slide spikes of this species is larger and sharper than most Ankylosaur indicating that if any large predator try to flip it over is likely to get impaled, the club tail does appeal to be longer than Ankylosaurus this may give it a longer ranged to ward off predators. this make a fully grown Ankylosaur likey have no predators, but baby Ankylosaur on the other hand are valuable to Acceraptor and Nykoraptor.