Acanthopholis

Acanthopholis is a genus of ankylosaurian dinosaur, which means it was a four-legged herbivore with a heavily armored body.

It lived during the Late Cretaceous Period, about 100 million years ago, in what is now England.

The name Acanthopholis means "spiny scales", referring to the rows of oval plates and spikes that covered its skin.

It was about 4 meters (13 feet) long and weighed roughly 380 kilograms (840 pounds).

It is known from a few fossils, including teeth, a skull base, a vertebra, and some osteoderms (bone plates).

Acanthopholis was first named and described by Thomas Henry Huxley in 1867, based on specimens collected by John Griffiths near Folkestone in Kent.

Later, Harry Govier Seeley named three more species of Acanthopholis, but they are now considered dubious or belonging to other genera.

Acanthopholis is classified as a member of the family Nodosauridae, a group of ankylosaurs that lacked a tail club.

It is one of the earliest known nodosaurids, along with its close relatives Acantholipan and Gobisaurus.

Acanthopholis probably fed on low-growing plants and used its armor as a defense against predators.