The Oldest Known Ankylosaurs Had “Wacky” 1-Meter Spikes Fused To Their Ribs, Something We've Never Seen In Any Other Vertebrate

The ankylosaurs were a very impressive group of dinosaurs covered in armored plates with clubs for tails (that may have sounded like birds ), but we’ve just discovered that the oldest known member of the group may have also been the most badass. New fossils have revealed that an ankylosaur known as Spicomellus afer was covered in enormous spikes that were fused to its bones, some almost a meter (3.3 feet) long. The rest of this article is behind a paywall. Please sign in or subscribe to access the full content.

“The armour of Spicomellus is unlike that of any other ankylosaur,” said study author and London Natural History Museum senior researcher Dr Susannah Maidment to IFLScience. “Other ankylosaurs have bony collars around their necks, but they are mostly flattish bands of bone