Strange Dinosaur Species Found, Has a Body Like Armor

Suara.com – Scientists find fossil species dinosaur strange with an armor-like body.

The dinosaur’s body was covered in bony spines protruding from its ribs.

New species this is named Spicomellus afer and is the oldest of a group of dinosaurs called ankylosaurs and the first of its kind found on the African continent.

According to experts, the pointed ribs protruding on the dinosaur’s body from 160 million years ago is a strange feature.

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Especially not seen in other living or extinct vertebrate species.

“The specimen consists of a rib with a barbed skin guard that fuses to the surface of its back,” said Susannah CR Maidment of the National History Museum. Independent, Monday (27/9/2021).

According to him, this is morphologically unprecedented among extinct and extant vertebrates.

Even though dinosaur fossils Armored herbivores, such as Stegosaurus, have been found extensively on the northern continent.

Researchers say this is the first time dinosaur fossils like this have been found in Africa.

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Over the years, researchers have found different types of dinosaurs with armor-like bodies.

Some of them have bony plates embedded in the skin and others have large bony sticks at the end of the tail.

However, this newly discovered dinosaur had prominent bones.

Paleontologists say the protective spines on this ankylosaurus are very strange because the feature actually fuses with the rib cage itself.

The study was published in the journal Nature Ecology and Evolution, in which scientists analyze parts of fossils histologically.

The team found that the bony structure in the spiky section had a characteristic only seen in ankylosaurs from this period.

“When we got the fossil, we thought it might be part of a stegosaurus,” Maidment said.

According to him, they did not see stegosaurus with protective bones like this.

Unfortunately, the fossil was found in a fragmented condition, so it is very difficult to reveal what this giant animal looked like.

In addition, it is also difficult to tell how the thorns are attached to the ribs.

Researchers hope that further excavations in Morocco will reveal more details about the strange dinosaur species.

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