This newly recognized dinosaur had spiked physique armor : NPR

Fossils of the creature Spicomellus revealed elaborate physique armor used to draw mates and deter rivals.

Matt Dempsey/The Natural History Museum, London

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Matt Dempsey/The Natural History Museum, London

A dinosaur that roamed modern-day Morocco greater than 165 million years in the past had a neck lined in three-foot lengthy spikes, a weapon on its tail and bony physique armor, in keeping with researchers who unearthed the curious beast’s stays.

The discovery of the animal Spicomellus within the Moroccan city of Boulemane painted a clearer image of the weird, spiked ankylosaur, which was first described in 2021 based mostly on the invention of a single rib bone.

Researchers now perceive that the four-legged herbivore, which was in regards to the size of a small car, was far more elaborately armored than initially believed, in keeping with analysis printed final month within the journal Nature.

“Spicomellus had a diversity of plates and spikes extending from all over its body, including metre-long neck spikes, huge upwards-projecting spikes over the hips, and a whole range of long, blade-like spikes, pieces of armour made up of two long spikes, and plates down the shoulder,” analysis co-lead Susannah Maidment mentioned in a statement to London’s Natural History Museum.

“We’ve never seen anything like this in any animal before.”

The Spicomellus‘ ribs had been lined with fused spikes projecting outward — a characteristic by no means witnessed earlier than in some other vertebrate, residing or extinct.

Co-lead of the mission Richard Butler, a paleobiology professor on the University of Birmingham, described seeing the fossil for the primary time as “spine-tingling.”

“We just couldn’t believe how weird it was and how unlike any other dinosaur, or indeed any other animal we know of, alive or extinct,” Butler instructed the Natural History Museum.

“It turns much of what we thought we knew about ankylosaurs and their evolution on its head and demonstrates just how much there still is to learn about dinosaurs,” he added.

Researchers counsel that the Spicomellus‘ advanced bone construction was used each to draw mates and deter rivals.

Discovering that the dinosaur had such elaborate armor that presumably prioritized kind as a lot as perform set the animal other than its predecessors, which had much less, extra defensive protecting on their our bodies.

In addition to showy barbs alongside Spicomellus‘ exterior, stays of the animal’s tail additionally supplied a shocking new element for scientists.

Fused vertebrae taking place into its tail shaped a “handle,” possible resulting in a club-like weapon on the finish — a element ankylosaur scientists had beforehand believed to not have advanced till the Cretaceous interval, tens of millions of years later.

“To find such elaborate armour in an early ankylosaur changes our understanding of how these dinosaurs evolved,” Maidment mentioned.

“It shows just how significant Africa’s dinosaurs are, and how important it is to improve our understanding of them,” she mentioned.