Ankylosaurs, with their squat, armored bodies and bizarre, weaponized tails, are an iconic group of dinosaurs. While there were plenty of species present in the Cretaceous, they're thought to have origins that trace back to the Jurassic. It has been hard to say much about those origins, however, because the fossil evidence was so sparse. One of the earliest potential ankylosaur species, Spicomellus , was known from only a single partial rib; others are known only by jaw fragments or teeth.

Now, however, we have a much better picture of what Spicomellus afer looks like thanks to a much larger collection of bones discovered in Morocco. It turns out that the heavy armor and rows of chunky spikes found on Cretaceous ankylosaurs were actually subdued compared to the massive rows of meter-l

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