In Morocco, scientists uncovered Spicomellus afer, the world's oldest armored dinosaur with meter-long spikes and the earliest known tail weapon. This bizarre discovery is rewriting what we know about dinosaur evolution. A new fossil discovery in Morocco has revealed one of the strangest dinosaurs ever identified, reshaping how scientists understand the evolution of armored species. The dinosaur, Spicomellus afer, lived more than 165 million years ago during the Middle Jurassic, near the present-day town of Boulemane. In addition to its unusual appearance, the species is believed to be the oldest known ankylosaur, a type of heavily armored herbivore dinosaur, and the first of its kind discovered on the African continent, according to research published Wednesday in Nature. Originally described in 2021 from a single rib bone, new remains uncovered by an international team of paleontologists have revealed just how extraordinary this animal really was. An unusual creature What makes Spicomellus unique is that it is the only known vertebrate, living or extinct, to have spikes fused directly to its ribs. Some of these protrusions formed a collar around its neck, with spines stretching up to 87 centimeters long, and possibly even longer in life. Researchers also believe its body was covered in a mix of plates and spikes, including massive spines over the hips and blade-like armor along the shoulders. «Spicomellus had meter-long neck spikes, huge upward-projecting spikes over the hips, and a whole range of long, blade-like spikes, pieces of armor made up of two long spikes, and plates down the shoulder. We've never seen anything like this in any animal before», Prof. Susannah Maidment of the Natural History Museum in London, who co-led the study with the University of Birmingham, told Phys.org. This elaborate armor is especially puzzling because Spicomellus represents the earliest stage of ankylosaur evolution. Later ankylosaurs did not inherit these extreme features, instead developing simpler, more defensive armor. Researchers suggest the spikes may have been used for display, attracting mates or intimidating rivals, rather than solely for protection. A tail weapon ahead of its time Even more surprising, the fossil evidence points to the presence of a tail weapon. Some of the tail vertebrae are fused in a way seen only in ankylosaurs with tail clubs, but those species lived tens of millions of years later, during the Cretaceous. This suggests that tail weapons evolved at least 30 million years earlier than previously thought. «Seeing and studying the Spicomellus fossils for the first time was spine-tingling», said Prof. Richard Butler of the University of Birmingham. «It turns much of what we thought we knew about ankylosaurs and their evolution on its head». Professor Driss Ouarhache of Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah University in Fez, who co-led the Moroccan team, highlighted the discovery's importance: «This study is helping to drive forward Moroccan science. We've never seen dinosaurs like this before, and there's still a lot more this region has to offer». The remains were cleaned and prepared at the Department of Geology at the Dhar El Mahraz Faculty of Sciences in Fez, using equipment provided by the University of Birmingham. They are now preserved and cataloged for future study.
