When You've Seen Them All

Nodosaurs, and Ankylosaurs, in general, appear to have always been drawn in a very odd way. Older illustrations are always pretty entertaining, and therefore, we shall start with that older illustration this time around. Acanthopholis in an old school fashion appears as do many of those old school Nodosaurs; namely with a semi-sprawling gait, dragging tail, and odd posture of the trunk brought about by the combination of sprawling and shortened forelimbs depicted here. The head of this Acanthopholis is also a little odd in that there is no dermal armor depicted on it; as if it was completely devoid of any type of protection. Even without "armor" the head of this dinosaur was most likely not entirely smooth as appears to be the case in this illustration.

The DK illustration, illustrator otherwise unknown, is a little more acceptable in terms of modern interpretation of the skeleton of Acanthopholis. The dermal armor on the trunk and tail are a little more heavy duty than they appeared on the older illustration. The tail is also held straight out from the body rigidly rather than drooping and dragging in the dirt. The trunk is now show as being mostly leveled with the forelimb less sprawled and therefore nearly as tall as the hindlimb. The head has also been massively updated with a keratinous beak and at least a less smoothed over skull roof if not a dermal plated skull roof.