“Real Godzilla” Spicomellus Afer: History’s Strangest Armored Dinosaur – Africa’s Oldest, Unearthed in Morocco!

In a discovery that has stunned paleontologists, Spicomellus afer—the world’s oldest known ankylosaur—has been confirmed as an extraordinarily spiky “punk-rock” dinosaur that roamed Morocco 165 million years ago. Far from a conventional armored tank, this Middle Jurᴀssic beast sported meter-long neck spikes and bone-fused armor unlike anything seen in any vertebrate, living or extinct.

The story began in 2019 when a single bizarre rib fragment, with osteoderms fused directly to the bone, surfaced from Morocco’s El Mers III Formation near Boulemane. Described in 2021 as the first African ankylosaur, it hinted at radical early evolution. A 2025 Nature paper delivered the bombshell: a far more complete skeleton reveals an elaborate bony collar ringed with spikes up to one meter (over three feet) long protruding sideways from the neck, plus extreme dermal armor covering the body.

Even more shocking, “handle” vertebrae in the tail indicate a weaponized tail club—pushing the origin of ankylosaur tail weaponry back by at least 30 million years. At roughly four meters long and two tonnes, Spicomellus was a formidable plant-eater bristling with defenses on Jurᴀssic floodplains.

This upends ankylosaur evolution. Scientists expected simpler armor in the oldest members, yet Spicomellus displays the most elaborate defenses ever recorded. “We’ve never seen anything like this in any animal before,” researchers note—features absent in later, better-known species. The find rewrites the timeline of armored dinosaur diversification and confirms Africa hosted ankylosaurs far earlier than thought.

Dubbed a “real Godzilla” for its over-the-top spikes, Spicomellus afer (“spiky armored dinosaur from Africa”) stands as one of the most bizarre dinosaurs ever discovered. Paleontology’s armored chapter just got a thrilling, spiky rewrite.