Artist’s impression of Spicomellus afer. Credit: Matt Dempsey Research on fossils reveals that ankylosaurs’ iconic tail weapons evolved much earlier than scientists had previously believed. =========================================================================== The world’s most unusual dinosaur is even stranger than scientists realized… A new study published in Nature reveals that Spicomellus afer possessed a tail weapon more than 30 million years earlier than any other known ankylosaur. It also featured a distinctive bony collar lined with meter-long spikes extending outward from each side of its neck. Spicomellus is recognized as the oldest ankylosaur ever discovered, dating back over 165 million years to the Middle Jurassic...