US Edition'Jaw-droppingly weird' dinosaur from Morocco was studded with spikes
Spicomellus afer, dating back 165 million years, had unique metre-long spikes fused to ribs and a spiked neck collar, indicating early ankylosaur armor was more elaborate than later species.
- Scientists have discovered a bizarre armoured dinosaur called Spicomellus afer, which lived 165 million years ago and had metre-long spikes sticking out from its neck.
- The elaborateness and spikiness of the animal found in Morocco has surprised experts, forcing them to rethink how these armoured dinosaurs evolved.
- The dinosaur fossils were discovered by a team of scientists in Morocco and published in the journal Nature, with researchers speculating that the spikes may have been used for display rather than armour.
49 Articles
49 Articles
Scientists have discovered that a four-meter-long, two-ton spiny dinosaur roamed the coastal plains of North Africa 165 million years ago. Some of the spines were almost a meter long. They concluded this based on bone fossils found in the Atlas Mountains in Morocco in 2022 by a farmer. These are the remains of a Spicomellus afer, the oldest known species of the armored, herbivorous ankylosaur family. The existence of this dinosaur had already be…
'Jaw-droppingly weird' dinosaur from Morocco was studded with spikes
Around 165 million years ago on a coastal floodplain in what is now Morocco lived one of the most extreme dinosaurs on record, lavishly adorned with armor and spikes - some about three feet (one meter) long - unlike that of any other known creature.
A previously undescribed dinosaur species has been discovered in Morocco's Atlas Mountains. The ankylosaur Spicomellus had spiky ribs and may have used the cumbersomely long spines in its neck to attract mates.
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