The dinosaur was medium-sized, standing at 3 feet 6 inches tall and stretching about 15 feet long. It lived in present-day southern Utah, which during the Late Cretaceous Period was part of the southern portion of Laramidia, an island continent that stretched from the Arctic Circle to the Gulf of Mexico. Though ankylosaurids originated in Asia between 125 - 100 million years ago, they do not appear in the western North American fossil record until about 77 million years ago. The new species "Akainacephalus" offers the most complete skeleton of an ankylosaurid dinosaur found in the southwestern United States. It includes a skull, much of the vertebral column, including a complete tail club, several fore and hind limbs elements, and bony body armour that includes two neck rings and spiked armour plates.