PALEONTOLOGY SHOCK: Spicomellus afer – The “Punk Rock” Dinosaur Bristling with Godzilla-Like Spikes That Rewrote Ankylosaur Evolution!

A bizarre, heavily armoured dinosaur from Jurᴀssic Morocco has stunned scientists with metre-long neck spikes fused directly to its bones, a tail weapon, and extravagant dermal armour unlike anything seen in any vertebrate—living or extinct. Spicomellus afer, the world’s oldest known ankylosaur and the first from Africa, lived ~165 million years ago and is forcing a complete rethink of how these “living tanks” evolved.

The story began in 2019 with a single unusual rib purchased by London’s Natural History Museum. In 2021, Susannah Maidment and colleagues named Spicomellus afer (“collar of spikes from Africa”) from the El Mers III Formation near Boulemane in the Middle Atlas Mountains. New fieldwork in 2022–2023 yielded far more spectacular remains: a bony neck collar ringed with spikes up to 1 metre long, “handle” tail vertebrae indicating an early tail weapon (pushing this feature back >30 million years), a sacral shield, and osteoderms fused straight to the skeleton—features never recorded before.

Roughly 4 metres long and weighing 1–2 tonnes, this Middle Jurᴀssic ankylosaur roamed coastal floodplains. Its ornate spikes likely served dual purposes—defence and flamboyant display for mating or intimidation—while later Cretaceous ankylosaurs evolved simpler, more defensive armour, possibly due to rising predation pressure.

Co-lead researcher Richard Butler of the University of Birmingham called it the “punk rocker” of the dinosaur world. Published in Nature (August 2025), the find confirms ankylosaurs originated earlier and were far more morphologically extreme than textbooks suggested. The Sahara and Atlas Mountains continue to yield Jurᴀssic treasures that keep rewriting prehistory. Spicomellus isn’t just another dinosaur—it’s a spiky, jaw-dropping icon of evolutionary weirdness.