Unearthed in Morocco's Atlas Mountains: a 165-million-year-old 'porcupine' dinosaur
The team, led by Susannah Maidment of the Natural History Museum in London and the University of Birmingham, analyzed new partial skeletal fossils from Middle Jurassic strata near Boulemane in the Atlas Mountains. After a local farmer reported saving unusual bones from floodwaters, researchers located additional remains, secured permits to visit the site, and excavated more material while keeping the exact location confidential to protect it, ScienceAlert reported.
The specimen included vertebral and rib fragments, parts of the pelvis, and osteoderms, allowing a reconstruction despite the incomplete skeleton. The most striking feature was a robust bony collar around the neck bearing 10 cervical spikes; the longest reached at least 87 centimeters and was likely longer in life. Additional armor included large spikes above the hips and a pelvic shield with a mix of long and short spikes, while ribs carried three or four large spikes on their upper surfaces, a configuration unknown in other animals.
“The armor of Spicomellus is jaw-droppingly weird, unlike that of any other dinosaur - or any other animal alive or dead - that we’ve ever discovered,” said Richard Butler, a vertebrate paleontologist at the University of Birmingham and co-leader of the research. “It was so weird that the first thing we did was a CT scan to check that it wasn’t fake and that somebody hadn’t stuck spines onto the top of the ring,” said Maidment.
The discovery indicated that characteristic ankylosaur adaptations, especially tail weapons, evolved much earlier than suspected. Traces of weapon structures in the tail region and fused handle vertebrae showed that mechanisms for the tail clubs of later ankylosaurs were underway in the Middle Jurassic, about 30 million years earlier than previously known.
The team suggested that the elaborate armor was not purely defensive. “It’s hard to imagine that the one-meter-long spikes around the neck served exclusively for defense. They were probably for display,” said Butler. “As is the case in living animals with elaborate and often awkward structures (e.g., the antlers of deer or the tail of the peacock), in Spicomellus the large spikes likely had a role in courtship or competition for mates,” said Maidment. The researchers added that later ankylosaurs evolved simpler armor primarily for defense as predation pressure increased in the Cretaceous, when predators grew exceptionally large.
Spicomellus Afer lived about 165 million years ago on Gondwana, on a coastal floodplain in what is now Morocco, and measured roughly 4 meters long and 1.5 to 2 tonnes, a short-limbed, wide-bodied, slow-moving herbivore that walked on four legs and carried plates and spines. Initially known in 2021 from a single rib with fused spikes, the new material allowed researchers to reconstruct an animal with extreme adornments from its neck collar to spiky ribs and hips.
“Our team will continue to explore the exciting and never-before-seen ecosystem in the Middle Atlas Mountains. We hope to reveal many more weird dinosaurs, and perhaps another skeleton of Spicomellus. It would be great to find its skull!” said Maidment.
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