Tarchia

Tarchia was an ankylosaur, a heavily armoured type of dinosaur.

Like many ankylosaurs, Tarchia sported a hard, bony club on the end of its tail. Experts have debated whether the club was used for defending against predators, for fighting other Tarchia or both.

In 2021, a new Tarchia specimen was discovered with impact damage to the tail and hips. This suggests that it may have been hit by the tail club of another ankylosaur.

The name Tarchia comes from the Mongolian word 'tarkhi', meaning 'brain'.

Teresa Maryanska, a Polish scientist who specialised in Mongolian dinosaurs, chose this name because the dinosaur had a larger braincase than its close relative Saichania.

Tarchia and Saichania - plus a third ankylosaur called Zaraapelta - all lived together in what is now the Gobi Desert. Although the Mongolian desert today is mostly rocks, in the Cretaceous Period it was a sandy expanse with dunes and oases.

Tarchia's mouth shape suggests that it was probably quite selective about the types of ground-level plants it ate. Earlier ankylosaurs tended to eat many different types of plants in bulk.

Tarchia also lived alongside Tarbosaurus, a meat-eating dinosaur closely related to Tyrannosaurus.

Tarbosaurus tooth marks have been found on a Tarchia skull, showing that the ankylosaur was hunted by the giant predator.