165-million-year-old spiked dinosaur with ‘weaponised tail’ discovered in Morocco

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165-million-year-old spiked dinosaur with ‘weaponised tail’ discovered in Morocco  The discovery of the dinosaur remains reveals the earliest known ankylosaur with extreme armour and a possible tail weapon 30 million years earlier than previously thought.  READ MORE : http://www.euronews.com/2025/08/29/165-million-year-old-spiked-dinosaur-with-weaponised-tail-discovered-in-morocco  Spark your senses, wake your wonder. Euronews Culture seeks to show creativity in action and inspire our audience to explore the world through the five senses. Start your journey through the best of Europe's arts, gastronomy, traditions and high-end craftsmanship.

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00:00This one has what appears to be a bony collar around its neck with huge, four huge spikes

00:28sticking out of the side of it. Now some of the spikes are broken has been in the ground for 165 million

00:33years so it's not in perfect condition but one of these spikes is 87 centimetres long and of course

00:39in life it would have been covered in some sort of horny covering you know like our fingernails are

00:44made out of that sort of material and so it would have been even longer and yeah we have a whole

00:49range of other kind of isolated spikes, spikes stuck to each other, we have these kind of teardrop shaped

00:56plates and we don't really know where all of those go on the body.

01:11We think that this animal was using this armour not just for defence as is you know generally

01:17thought to be the case with these armoured dinosaurs but also potentially for some sort of display.

01:22maybe it was showing off to attract a mate or maybe it was you know being used in some sort

01:27of courtship fighting like deer do or something like that and we can't be sure but it seems like

01:34massive overkill to have these enormous spikes just to defend itself.

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