AN unusual fossil with a series of spikes has been revealed to be the remains of a new species of dinosaur.
The fossil of an ankylosaur rib, found at the Boulahfa site in the Middle Atlas mountains of Morocco, is believed to be at least 20 million years older than any of that species found before, scientists said, while its shape is also “unusual”.
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Ankylosaurs were a herbivorous group of dinosaurs known for their armoured tank-like bodies and a club-shaped tail tip.
According to Dr Susannah Maidment of the Natural History Museum’s Palaeontology Department, the oldest fossils of ankylosaurs date back to the Cretaceous period. This is roughly between 145.5-65 million years ago and the Jurassic era. However, this bone is approximately 165 million years old.
She said that although ankylosaurs are well-known from the Cretaceous, especially from North America, Asia and Europe, we do not know much about this species.
This is a brand new ankylosaur species. It’s older than any other ankylosaur we have found, and it also has a really, really bizarre morphology.
“This fossil is about 165 million years old. It’s from the Middle Jurassic, a time period where we have really hardly any evidence of ankylosaurs at all.”
Ankylosaurs are distinguished by the presence of bone plates and spikes embedded in their skin.
Dr Maidment said that the new fossil, which is the first from Africa, shows spikes attached directly at the bone.
“This specimen actually has spikes, an osteodermal plate fused with a rib. It’s attached firmly to it and could not have broken.
“That is really weird. We don’t see that in any other ankylosaur and in fact we don’t see that in any other vertebra that we know of, living or dead,” She agreed.
The unusual specimen was so strange that the researchers initially thought it might be a hoax.
Dr Maidment acquired the rib from a fossil dealer in Cambridge in 2019, and has named the species Spicomellus afer: Spicomellus
meaning collar of spikes, and afer meaning ‘of Africa’.
She was previously the leader of the study on a new species stegosaurian dinosaur – the oldest definite stegosaur ever identified – that was found at the exact same site.
“We thought it (the ankylosaur fossil) was a stegosaur because it was from a site in Morocco where we named a stegosaur last year and we saw that this fossil comprised a series of spines, and stegosaurs do have some spines on their body,” She stated.
Further examination revealed that the fossil had a distinctive texture. It formed a cross-hatch-like pattern.
Dr Maidment is an honorary senior lecturer from the University of Birmingham. She hopes to visit this site in the near future to learn more about the reason there has been only one ankylosaur bone found in Africa.
She said: “Prior this find, we haven’t had any ankylosaur fossils in Africa from any time period during the Mesozoic. We don’t know what that means.”
It could have been because they were not a common part of African ecosystems or that we haven’t yet found their fossils.
“This is a new site where these dinosaurs are coming from so perhaps if we keep looking there we’ll be able to find more of this skeleton because it is rather fragmented at the moment.”
The remains of a new dinosaur species have been found in an unusual fossil with several spikes.
The fossil of an ankylosaur rib, found at the Boulahfa site in the Middle Atlas mountains of Morocco, is believed to be at least 20 million years older than any of that species found before, scientists said, while its shape is also “unusual”.
Ankylosaurs, a group of herbivorous dinosaurs, were known for their armored tank-like bodies and club-shaped tail tips.
According to Dr Susannah Maidment (palaeontologist at the Natural History Museum), the oldest fossils of ankylosaurs date back to the Cretaceous period. This is roughly between 145.5-65 million years ago and 165 million years ago. However, this bone is approximately 165 million years old and dates back to the Jurassic age.
She said that although ankylosaurs are well-known from the Cretaceous, especially from North America, Asia and Europe, we do not know much about this species.
“This is a completely new ankylosaur. It is much older than any other ankylosaur found. But it also has an extremely strange morphology.
“This fossil is about 165 million years old. It’s from the Middle Jurassic, a time period where we have really hardly any evidence of ankylosaurs at all.”
Ankylosaurs have long been known for the presence of boney plates and spikes embedded in their skin.
The new fossil, however, is the first to be found on the African continent. It shows spikes attached directly to the bone. Dr Maidment called this unusual.
“This specimen actually has spikes, an osteodermal plate fused with a rib. It’s attached firmly to it and could not have broken.
“That is really weird. We don’t see that in any other ankylosaur and in fact we don’t see that in any other vertebra that we know of, living or dead,” She agreed.
The unusual specimen was so strange that the researchers initially thought it might be a hoax.
Dr Maidment acquired the rib from a fossil dealer in Cambridge in 2019, and has named the species Spicomellus afer: Spicomellus
meaning collar of spikes, and afer meaning ‘of Africa’.
She was previously the leader of the study on a new species stegosaurian dinosaur – the oldest definite stegosaur ever identified – that was found at the exact same site.
“We thought it (the ankylosaur fossil) was a stegosaur because it was from a site in Morocco where we named a stegosaur last year and we saw that this fossil comprised a series of spines, and stegosaurs do have some spines on their body,” She stated.
Further examination revealed that the fossil had a distinctive texture. It formed a cross-hatch-like pattern.
Honorary senior lecturer at University of Birmingham Dr Maidment hopes to visit the site and find out more about why only one ankylosaur fossil has been found in Africa.
She said: “Prior this find, we haven’t had any ankylosaur fossils in Africa from any time period during the Mesozoic. We don’t know what that means.”
They could have been a rare part of Africa’s ecosystems, or we could just not yet find their fossils.
“This is a new site where these dinosaurs are coming from so perhaps if we keep looking there we’ll be able to find more of this skeleton because it is rather fragmented at the moment.”
Nature Ecology and Evolution publish the results.
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