'Punk rock': A new spiny dinosaur has been discovered

The species, called Spicomellus afer, lived 165 million years ago and is the oldest example of a group of armored dinosaurs called ankylosaurus.

A dinosaur's elaborate spines found in Morocco have baffled experts and forced them to rethink how these armoured dinosaurs evolved.

Professor Richard Butler of the University of Birmingham, who led the research, described this dinosaur as "punk rock".

One of the Strangest Dinosaurs Ever Discovered

Punk rock is a musical style that emerged in the 1970s, and those who follow this style are generally known for preferring a spiky look in their hair and accessories.

"This is one of the strangest dinosaurs ever discovered," said Prof. Butler.

Butler's project partner, Prof. Susannah Maidment of London's Natural History Museum, said it was surprising that the spikes had fused directly to the bone.

"We don't see this in any other animal, living or extinct," he said.

"The dinosaur's entire back, the bone surrounding its neck and the tip of its tail are covered in really strange sharp spines and protrusions, so it's a very unusual dinosaur."

The discovery is so unusual that two professors say it could force them to rethink theories of how ankylosaurus evolved.

These animals survived during the Cretaceous period, towards the end of the time when dinosaurs existed.

This refers to a period between 145 and 66 million years ago. By the end of this period, large carnivorous predators like T. Rex had emerged. Therefore, it was thought that ankylosaurus developed simple, small armored plates on its back, and that these spine-like structures later became larger and more developed to protect themselves from these massive beasts.

Prof. Butler expresses this situation as follows:

"If you'd asked me what the earliest known ankylosaurus looked like, I'd have said something with pretty basic armor. Instead, it's an animal with sharp spines like a porcupine, some of the strangest armor we've ever found in any animal, and far outside the range of armor seen in later ankylosauruses."

Researchers don't have enough skeletal remains to determine the dinosaur's exact dimensions, but they estimate it was about four meters long, one meter high and weighed about two tons.

According to Prof. Maidment, the discovery raises the possibility that ankylosaurus started with elaborate armor in an earlier dinosaur period known as the Jurassic, and evolved over tens of millions of years to become simpler and possibly more functional.

"Our guess is that perhaps these spines were originally used for intimidating display, and only later in the Cretaceous period, when we start seeing massive dinosaurs with giant jaws, did they need to use these display structures as armor."

The dinosaur remains were found by a farmer in the Moroccan town of Boulemane.

This is the first ankylosaurus found on the African continent.

Prof. Butler describes the moment he first saw the fossils:

"It was a truly astonishing moment that gave me goosebumps, perhaps the most exciting moment of my career. We had enough remains to realize that this animal was much stranger than we had imagined."

"This work helps advance Moroccan science. We've never seen dinosaurs like this before, and this region has so much more to offer," said Prof. Driss Ouarhache of Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdullah University, who led the Moroccan team involved in the research.

The research was published in the journal Nature.