World's weirdest dinosaur had a spike collar and secret tail weapon

When people think of armored dinosaurs, images of lumbering creatures with clubbed tails and heavy plates come to mind. But the discovery of Spicomellus afer in Morocco has rewritten that image in ways scientists never imagined.

New research published in the journal Nature reveals this unusual dinosaur carried a unique set of weapons and ornaments that predate similar features in other species by more than 30 million years.

Discovery of Spicomellus

Spicomellus lived about 165 million years ago in the Middle Jurassic near what is now Boulemane, Morocco. It is the earliest known ankylosaur and the first discovered on the African continent.

Originally described in 2021 from a single rib bone, the species has now been fleshed out by new remains that reveal extraordinary features.

The dinosaur’s ribs fused with long spikes, some nearly 87 centimeters, creating a collar of outward-pointing blades around its neck. No other vertebrate, living or extinct, is known to share this adaptation.

Armor like no other

“To find such elaborate armor in an early ankylosaur changes our understanding of how these dinosaurs evolved. It shows just how significant Africa’s dinosaurs are, and how important it is to improve our understanding of them,” noted Susannah Maidment, a professor at the University of Birmingham.

The new fossils highlight just how extreme this armor truly was. Spicomellus did not only carry spikes on its ribs but displayed a wide variety of protective and ornamental features across its body. Professor Maidment noted that nothing like this has ever been seen in any other animal.

“Spicomellus had a diversity of plates and spikes extending from all over its body, including meter-long neck spikes, huge upwards-projecting spikes over the hips, and a whole range of long, blade-like spikes, pieces of armor made up of two long spikes, and plates down the shoulder.”

Puzzling Spicomellus traits

What makes this especially odd is the timing. “It’s particularly strange as this is the oldest known ankylosaur, so we might expect that a later species might have inherited similar features, but they haven’t,” noted Professor Maidment.

Professor Richard Butler of the University of Birmingham echoed the shock of discovery. He said that seeing and studying the Spicomellus fossils for the first time was spine-tingling.

“We just couldn’t believe how weird it was and how unlike any other dinosaur, or indeed any other animal we know of alive or extinct,” noted Professor Butler.

“It turns much of what we thought we knew about ankylosaurs and their evolution on its head and demonstrates just how much there still is to learn about dinosaurs.”

Purpose of the spikes

Scientists suggest the extravagant spikes likely played a role in attracting mates or intimidating rivals, rather than in defense.

Later ankylosaurs shifted to simpler, tougher armor, probably in response to the rise of large predators such as advanced theropods, mammals, crocodiles, and snakes during the Cretaceous.

Despite these changes, one trait may have endured. Evidence from fused vertebrae in the tail hints that Spicomellus already had a primitive club, a weapon previously thought to appear only much later.

The combination of a spiked shield and potential tail weapon suggests that many defining features of ankylosaurs emerged earlier than paleontologists believed.

This revelation highlights the role of the fossil record in tracking how survival strategies adapted across deep time.

Local and global importance

Professor Driss Ouarhache of Université Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah, who co-led the Moroccan team, emphasized the importance of regional discoveries.

“This study is helping to drive forward Moroccan science. We’ve never seen dinosaurs like this before, and there’s still a lot more this region has to offer,” said Professor Ouarhache.

The remains were carefully prepared at the Department of Geology, Dhar El Mahraz Faculty of Sciences in Fez, Morocco, with support from the University of Birmingham. They now remain preserved there for future study.

Spicomellus afer may be gone for over 160 million years, but its spikes and plates still spark wonder. Each fossil fragment reminds us how much remains hidden in Earth’s deep history, waiting for science to bring it to light.

The study is published in the journal Nature.

Image Credit: Matthew Dempsey

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