Spicomellus - a new look

Well, it's finally out! I've been dying to talk about this one for months.

Earlier this year, Professor Susie Maidment approached me about the prospect of creating a life reconstruction of Spicomellus (the earliest-known ankylosaur) based on new fossil material from Morocco that was undergoing description. Spicomellus was initially described based on its unusual spiked ribs back in 2021, but the new material was even wilder than anyone could have expected.

The newly-discovered osteoderms are insane, and unlike anything we've seen before. Most exceptional is the "cervical half ring". Bony plates like this wrapped around the neck of many ankylosaurs, but the half ring of Spicomellus is adorned with gigantic spikes that may have been up to a metre long. Between the spikes fused to the ribs and pelvis, the compound osteoderms (i.e. armour plates adorned with multiple sizes of spikes), and the half ring, there really isn't anything like this.

It feels fantastic to have been the first to incorporate this new material into a life illustration of the animal for the paper's press release. I hope this strange beast will be a source of inspiration for others.

You can read more about the new discovery in Nature: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-09453-6, as well as the Natural History Museum UK's press release: https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/news/2025/august/bizarre-armoured-dinosaur-spicomellus-afer-rewrites-ankylosaur-evolution.html