Fossil of Armoured Dinosaur – Ankylosaur discovered in Africa

By Swasti Sharma

Morocco, Sep 25: Researchers recently found an unusual fossil in the Middle Atlas Mountains of Morocco showing a series of spikes fused to a rib. It was found to be the oldest ankylosaur, a group of armoured, herbivorous dinosaurs. They have spikes embedded in their skin and not fused to the bone. It was named Spicomellus afer (spicomellus means ‘collar of spikes’, and afer means ‘of Africa’). They lived during the Middle Jurassic period around 168 million years ago. It has been found to be the oldest ankylosaur ever found and the first find in Africa. First, it was thought to be a stegosaur (a type of dinosaur which is herbivorous, four-legged, with distinct plates on their backs and spikes on their tails) and CT scanning showed a crosshatch pattern in the bone, which is unique to ankylosaurs. The discovery also shows that both stegosaurs and ankylosaurs co-existed for over 20 million years.