Overview

• A peer-reviewed Nature paper led by Susannah Maidment describes newly recovered fossils from Morocco’s Middle Atlas that enable the first robust reconstruction of Spicomellus afer.
• The specimen is Middle Jurassic and Gondwanan, expanding the temporal and geographic window for early ankylosaur evolution beyond the better-known Cretaceous record.
• Researchers report unprecedented armor: spike-like projections ran from the neck over the back to the tail, with five neck spikes including at least two approaching one meter in length.
• The team estimates the animal measured about four meters and weighed roughly 1.5 to 2 tonnes.
• A tail weapon is documented, suggesting such weaponry evolved about 30 million years earlier than previously thought, and the authors hypothesize the extravagant spikes were sexually selected for display or combat during mating.