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A dinosaur called one of the “most strange” that are boasted with an elaborate arsenal of long bone spikes and a gun, according to the results published in the scientific journal Nature.

Spicomellus, which wandered around the Earth 165 million years ago, is the oldest anquilosourism in the world, a herbivorous group of dinosaurs known for their bodies of tanks.

The image of the Paleontologists of Spicomellus was based on a single rib found in Morocco in 2019.

But the newly discovered remains have helped scientists form a clearer image of unusual dinosaur.

The fossils showed that he had merged bone peaks in all his ribs, something never seen before in any other kind of vertebrates living or extinguished, according to the investigation published on Wednesday.

Richard Butler, a professor at the University of Birmingham and the co-leader of the project, told News themezone BBC News that was the “punk rocker” of his time.

Butler described fossils an “incredibly significant discovery”, adding that “Spicomellus is one of the strangest dinosaurs we have discovered.”

The co-leader of the Butler project, Susannah Maidment of the Museum of Natural History in London, added that it was surprising that the peaks would merge directly on the bone, the BBC reported.

“We don’t see that in any other animal, alive or extinct,” he said. “It is absolutely covered with spikes and really strange protuberances on the back of the animal, including a bone necklace that is wrapped around its neck and some type of weapon at the end of its tail, so it is a very unusual dinosaur.”

The discovery is so unusual that Butler and Maidment are considering whether the theories about how anquilosaurs evolved must reevaluate.

These dinosaurs survived late at the time that dinosaurs were on earth, in a period known as the Cretaceous, the BBC reported. The end of this period saw the appearance of great carnivorous predatorslike T. Rex, so it had been thought that the ankylosours began with simple and small armored plates in the back, which later became larger and more extensive to protect themselves from these great beasts, according to Butler.

“If you had asked me what I would have expected that the oldest ankylour seemed to have said something with a fairly simple armor,” Butler told BBC News. “On the other hand, we have an upright animal with peaks like a hedgehog, the strongest armor we have found in any animal, far from the armor range seen in later ankylors.”

• Morocco
• Archaeologist
• Dinosaur