Ancient Armored Dinosaur Unearthed in Morocco’s Middle Atlas Mountains

The researchers indicate that it is a new species of ankylosaur, an impressive animal, covered with a thick carapace. Its appearance dates back to 163 or even 167 million years, according to the paleontological research carried out by the team of researchers, led by Susannah Catherine Rose Maidment, a British paleontologist at the Natural History Museum in London.

The team obtained a rib of this ankylosaur from a fossil dealer in Cambridge in 2019, reports Challenge. This new dinosaur, named Spicomellus afer, is not only the oldest ankylosaur ever discovered and the first found on the African continent, but also has protruding bony spikes on its ribs, a feature that, according to the researchers, distinguishes it from all other vertebrate species.

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"This new fossil in which the armor is physically fused to the bones, looks nothing like what has been seen before. In addition, ankylosaurs are generally found in North America and Asia, and we know all kinds of different species, but this one is completely different from the other species," explained Susannah Catherine Rose Maidment.

At first, the researchers thought this fossil "was a stegosaurus, because it came from a site in Morocco where a stegosaurus had been found the previous year." "These dinosaurs come from a new site in Morocco. If we continue to search there, we could find more of this skeleton, because it is rather fragmented for the moment," added Susannah Catherine Rose Maidment.