Scientists have announced the discovery of an extraordinarily unusual armored dinosaur named Spicomellus afer, which featured meter-long spikes protruding from its neck.
This finding, detailed in a study published today in the journal Nature, builds on initial fossils from 2021 and reveals new remains that confirm and expand our understanding of this creature.
The announcement has generated widespread excitement in the paleontology community, with experts describing it as one of the “strangest dinosaurs ever discovered” and a “punk rocker” of its era due to its elaborate, spiky armor.
Imagine a feathered dinosaur strutting through a 125-million-year-old forest, shaking off pesky skin flakes like a bird with a bad hair day. Sounds wild, right? Well, researchers studying some of the oldest dinosaur fossils ever found have uncovered evidence that these ancient creatures might’ve dealt with their own version of dandruff.
In a fascinating discovery, paleontologists looked at incredibly well-preserved fossils (think Microraptor or Beipiaosaurus) and spotted tiny traces of corneocytes, the dead skin cells that make up dandruff in modern birds. These flaky clues, locked in stone for over a hundred million years, suggest that feathered dinosaurs had skin shedding habits not so different from today’s pigeons or parrots.
Why does this matter? It’s a window into how dinosaur skin evolved alongside their feathers. Dandruff might’ve helped them keep their plumage clean, ditch parasites, or even stay aerodynamic. Unlike scaly reptiles that shed their skin in big patches, these dinosaurs flaked off bits at a time. This is even more proof they were closer to birds than we might’ve thought.
So next time you brush some dandruff off your shoulder, just picture a dinosaur doing the same millions of years ago. Who knew grooming could connect us to the Cretaceous?
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