165-million-year-old spiked dinosaur with ‘weaponised tail’ discovered in Morocco

Scientists have unearthed the remains of a heavily armoured dinosaur, complete with rib spikes, a bony neck collar and a tail that may have doubled as a weapon.

The fossil, discovered in Morocco’s Atlas Mountains, dates back 165 million years and belongs to a newly identified species of ankylosaur called Spicomellus.

And this wasn’t an animal you’d want to cross.

Researchers say Spicomellus sported six spikes along its ribs, a protective pelvic shield and a neck collar tipped with four enormous spikes. One of those spikes stretched an astonishing 87 centimetres - almost the length of a baseball bat.

"This one has what appears to be a bony collar around its neck with four huge spikes sticking out of the side of it. Now some of the spikes are broken, it has been in the ground for 165 million years, so it's not in perfect condition, but one of these spikes is 87 centimetres long," says co-lead researcher Professor Susannah Maidment from The Natural History Museum.

She adds: "In life, it would have been covered in some sort of horny covering, like our fingernails are made out of, that sort of material. So it would've been even longer."

Evidence from the tail bones suggests the dinosaur carried an early version of the infamous ankylosaur “tail club” - fused vertebrae designed to support a brutal weapon at the end of its tail. That pushes back the origin of tail weapons in dinosaurs by 30 million years.

Its armour may also have served as a display: "Can you imagine walking around with a collar with metre-long spikes sticking out of it, get tangled up in vegetation and stuff like that. Must have been really annoying," says Maidment.

"This probably suggests that this animal was using this armour not just for defence, as is generally thought to be the case with these armoured dinosaurs, but also potentially for some sort of display."

Later ankylosaurs evolved simpler armour, suggesting a shift to protection over show.