It was a medium-sized, heavily built, ground-dwelling, quadrupedal herbivore, that could grow up to 5–6 m (16–20 ft) long and weighed about 454 to 907 kg (1,001 to 2,000 lb), nearly a ton.

Talarurus is known from the Bayan Shireh Formation, being likely niche partitioned with Tsagantegia, as indicated by its muzzle, which has a rectangular shape specialized for grazing.

The holotype specimen PIN 557-91 was discovered in 1948 by the Joint Soviet-Mongolian Paleontological Expedition, and unearthed from sandy, red calcareous claystone at the Baynshire locality of the Bayan Shireh Formation.

Specimen PIN 557, the original holotype designated by Maleev, included a fragmentary skull with the posterior part of the skull roof, including the occipital region and the basicranium, numerous vertebrae, several ribs, a scapulocoracoid, a humerus, a radius, an ulna, a nearly complete manus, a partial ilium, an ischium, a femur, a tibia, a fibula, a nearly complete pes, and assorted armor and scutes.

[7] Since 2006, in the context of the Korea-Mongolia Joint International Dinosaur Project, numerous additional specimens have been referred to Talarurus, found at the Baynshire and Shine Us Khuduk localities.

[4] Another specimen referred to this genus from the Bayshin Tsav locality is composed of an (undescribed) incomplete skull with cranial roof, occipital part and braincase.

Another presumed characteristics: the osteoderms had a furrowed ornamentation, making a specially formidable armor, with each plate adorned with additional pleated spines.

The mount has the further peculiarity that it shows Talarurus as built like a hippopotamus, with a barrel-shaped thorax, not with the characteristic ankylosaurid low and wide body type, and the forelimbs are strongly splayed.

This was caused by an incorrect positioning of the ribs as if they were appending instead of sticking out sideways; this mistake also prevented a mounting of the wide upper pelvic elements.

[10] Like other ankylosaurids, it had a wide rostrum (beak), a formidable osteoderms running across its body, forming an extensive armor, and the famous tail club.

Also she determined that Talarurus differed from all known ankylosaurids with the exception of the American Nodocephalosaurus in the possession of caputegulae on the frontals and nasals, that are cone-shaped with a circular base.

[6] The holotype, PIN 557-91, is based only on a posterior skull roof,[3][6] which features tubercle-like caputegulae (facial osteoderms or armor tiles) that resemble those of Nodocephalosaurus.

As noted by Arbour and Currie, the skull roof of PIN 3780/1 appears to have slightly different caputegulae (head osteoderms or armour tiles), and that it was unclear if this represents a taxonomic issue.

It nicely preserves the maxillary rostrum, which is broad and semi-rectangular in shape and fused, no teeth are found in this zone; probably useful on flat surfaces.

The cervical vertebrae are amphicoelous (concave on both sides) with thickened centra (body), the neural arches are slightly higher.

The shoulder girdle is represented by a scapulocoracoid that measures about 60 cm (600 mm) long, humerus, radius and ulna, these elements are very robust compared to other postcrania and they pertain to the left arm.

[1][11] Ankylosaurid phylogenetic relations are hard to determine because many taxa are only partially known, the exact armour configuration has rarely been preserved, fused osteoderms obscure many details of the skull and the Ankylosauridae are conservative in their postcranial skeleton, showing little variation in their vertebrae, pelves and limbs.

Previously it was assumed that as one of the oldest known ankylosaurids, Talarurus possessed some basal characters that are shared with nodosaurids but were later lost in more advanced ankylosaurs, such as the presence of four toes.

This can be reconciled with its relatively old geological age by the possibility that the Ankylosauridae as a whole appeared much earlier during the Early Jurassic, which must have been true if they were the sister group of the Nodosauridae in the sense proposed by Coombs in 1978; i.e. if all polacanthines were nodosaurids.

[12] Maryańska demonstrated that it differed from Euoplocephalus, citing the shape of the skull, the morphology of the palate, and the presence of four pedal digits.

[4] Crichtonpelta Tsagantegia Zhejiangosaurus Pinacosaurus Saichania Tarchia Zaraapelta Dyoplosaurus Talarurus Nodocephalosaurus Ankylosaurus Anodontosaurus Euoplocephalus Scolosaurus Ziapelta The 2007 specimen skulls have brought new insights into the neurocranial capacities and dietary habits of Talarurus, specifically the specimen MPC-D 100/1354, which is a well-preserved, almost complete cranium.

They noted that ankylosaurids had well-developed gaze stabilization and auditive senses, differing from nodosaurids, by examining the endocranial region of the selected specimens.

[15] Found in Late Cretaceous localities such as Baynshire and Bayshin Tsav,[16] taxa that were contemporaneous with Talarurus in the Upper Bayan Shireh included a diverse dinosaur fauna, such as the large dromaeosaurid Achillobator,[17] the therizinosaurids Erlikosaurus[18] and Segnosaurus,[18] the ornithomimosaur Garudimimus,[19] the small and likely immature ceratopsid Graciliceratops,[20] the small hadrosauroid Gobihadros,[16] and its ecological counterpart, Tsagantegia.

[21] Based on the caliche, fluvial and lacustrine sedimentation, the Bayan Shireh Formation was a large semiarid terrain with meanders and lakes,[22][23] along with the strong presence of angiosperm and gymnosperm plants all over the zone.