SPICOMELLUS AFER It’s not just a super thorny anklyosaur. It is the oldest ankylosaur known to have ever eaten a tail weapon. An examination of a new SPICOMELLUS AFER specimen published in the journal Nature Indicates that the intermediate jurassic herbivore also included a unique horns of horns three feet long, as well as a tail weapon 30 million years before one of his other parents of Anklyosaurus.
“We have never seen anything like such in an animal before,” said co-author and paleontologist Susannah Maidment in a press release.
Although Spicomellus lived around 165 million years ago, the vast majority of its ankylosaurid descendants existed about 74 to 67 million years ago at the end of the Cretaceous. These robust dinosaurs are particularly recognizable because of their armored veneer and their distinct defensive horns which covered large parts of their body. Many species have also evolved specialized tails equipped with their own points or their club -shaped protuberances that they exercised with often fatal results.
Spicomellus was described for the first time in 2021, but it was only based on a single bone on the coast. However, the discovery of a farmer near the Moroccan city of Boulemane in 2022 revealed a much more complete example of the little dinosaur. After months of subsequent excavation work and laboratory analysis, Maidment and his teammates were amazed by what they found.
“”Spicomellus had a diversity of plates and tips extending from all over his body, including a meter long [3.3-foot-long] Neck ends, ”said Maidment.
The dinosaur also included large ascending growth peaks on its hips, a range of blade tips in its chest and armor plates on its shoulders. A series of bone spikes merged and projected from its ribs is also completely unique to this species. Many of these fatal accessories have continued to develop throughout the life of the dinosaur.
“To find such an armor elaborated in an early ankylosaur, we understand how these dinosaurs have evolved,” said Maidment. “This shows how important the dinosaurs of Africa are and how important it is to improve our understanding of them.”
Additional establishment Spicomellus Apart from other creatures is his tail weapon. Although common to anklyosaurs by early Cretaceous, the defensive tool had never been seen so far in the line of the dinosaurs. This second specimen did not include the end of its tail, but a structure of fused vertebrae known as the handle strongly supports the existence of a club shape or peak tail top.
The co-author of the study, Richard Butler, described the discoveries of the team as a “vertebral column”.
“We just couldn’t believe how weird it was and how much other dinosaur, or even any other animal we know, living or off,” he added.
Maidament, Butler and their other collaborators theorize that the protected points both Spicomellus Against predators and rivals, as well as attracted potential partners. Part of the armor also seems more decorative than defensive, which lacks all other known anklyosaurs. A potential explanation is that when the predators have evolved larger in the Cretaceous, the ankylosauric armor has evolved with them to become simpler and more utilitarian.
“This transforms a large part of what we think we knew about ankylosaurs and their evolution on his head and shows how much there is to learn about dinosaurs,” said Butler.
