And we have known for sure that the armor was around back then, given that we’ve found the skin-derived osteoderms that comprise the armor in Jurassic deposits. But with little more than a rib and a handful of mouth parts to go on, it wasn’t really possible to say much more than that. Until now, that is. Because the new …
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Spicomellus ankylosaur: Dinosaur from Morocco was studded with spikes and armor
Facebook Tweet Email Link 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 long – unlike that of any other known creature. Researchers on Wednesday described extensive fossilized remains discovered in the Atlas Mountains near …
Read More »‘Bristling with spikes’: oldest known ankylosaur fossil found in Morocco | Dinosaurs
Tank-like physique, bristling with body armour and a collar of spikes the length of golf clubs, Spicomellus afer looks more like a Pokémon creation than a living creature. This bizarre dinosaur roamed the flood planes of what is now north Africa 165m years ago, palaeontologists have revealed. The fossil, the oldest known ankylosaur specimen, was unearthed near the central Moroccan …
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