It’s been a while since I do something spiky and scaly… no feathers this time! But I couldn’t resist the temptation: It is not very often there’s a find as this remarkable nodosaur fossil now at the Tyrrell Museum, the supreme Dinosaur Mecca in Alberta, Canada and made public by National Geographic in astounding detail… the carcass, now named as Borealopelta markmitchelli, originally fell to the bottom of the sea or waterway on its back, but turned over and with a painstakingly good restoration work we get an almost life-like gargoyle, a real snapshot of the animal’s front, fully armoured and looking as if it was alive still! It clarifies a lot about nodosaur armature, and simply the incredible brightly woven spikes would be a deterrent.. and a distraction to the odd Acrocanthosaurus, busy following sauropod herds!
It is not the first time I do a spiky one coloured red… While Jakob Vinther fully reaches his conclusions studying melanosome fossilised remains preserved… I picture a reddish handsome devil!