"This dinosaur is totally unlike anything else that we have ever seen."

After discovering the most complete skeleton of the ankylosaur known as Spicomellus afer back in 2022 and 2023, paleontologists have just described what this prehistoric creature looked like — and it was more bizarre than they ever imagined.

The plant-eating dinosaur, which roamed the Atlas Mountains of Morocco 165 million years ago, was covered in long spikes, but it was the fearsome collar around its neck that set it apart from its closest relatives. Now, this latest specimen is revealing more about how ankylosaurs evolved.

The Strange Appearance Of ‘Spicomellus Afer’

In 2019, Susannah Maidment, a paleontologist at London’s Natural History Museum, received a dinosaur rib from a fossil dealer in Cambridge. There

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