This Was the World’s Most Armoured Dinosaur — Until Evolution Did Something Strange
Discover the strange, spiked, and armoured dinosaur that rewrites evolution's story of the ankylosaurs.
Spicomellus Was Built Like a Living Fortress
Its Neck Spikes Were Almost Unbelievable
Its Armour Was Not Just on the Surface
It Was Found in Morocco
It Lived Around 165 Million Years Ago
Its Tail May Have Been Weaponized
Evolution May Have Started With the Extreme
The Armour May Have Been for Display Too
It Was Not the Biggest Dinosaur, but It Was Striking
It Rewrites the Story of Armoured Dinosaurs
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Some dinosaurs were frightening because of their teeth, speed, or size. Spicomellus afer was strange for another reason: it looked as if evolution had turned defense into architecture. Newly described fossils from Morocco suggest this early armoured dinosaur carried an extraordinary covering of spikes and plates, including neck spikes approaching a metre long, making it one of the most bizarre armoured dinosaurs ever found.
The surprise is not only that Spicomellus was heavily protected. The stranger part is that it lived around 165 million years ago, making it the oldest known ankylosaur, yet it already had extreme armour and signs of a tail weapon far earlier than scientists expected. Instead of starting simple and becoming more dramatic over time, ankylosaur evolution may have done something more complicated.