Ankylosauria is a diverse clade of armoured dinosaurs whose members were important constituents of many Cretaceous faunas. Phylogenetic analyses imply that the clade diverged from its sister taxon, Stegosauria, during the late Early Jurassic, but the fossil records of both clades are sparse until the Late Jurassic (~150 million years ago). Moreover, Ankylosauria is almost entirely restricted to former Laurasian continents, with only a single valid Gondwanan taxon. Spicomellus afer gen. et sp. nov. appears to represent the earliest-known ankylosaur and the first to be named from Africa, from the Middle Jurassic (Bathonian–Callovian) of Morocco, filling an important gap in dinosaur evolution. The specimen consists of a rib with spiked dermal armour fused to its dorsal surface, an unprecedented morphology among extinct and extant vertebrates. The specimen reveals an unrealized morphological diversity of armoured dinosaurs during their early evolution, and implies the presence of an important but undiscovered Gondwanan fossil record.

甲龙是一个多样化的装甲恐龙分支，其成员是许多白垩纪动物群的重要组成部分。系统发育分析表明，该进化枝在早侏罗世晚期与其姊妹分类群剑龙类发生了分歧，但直到侏罗纪晚期（约 1.5 亿年前），这两个进化枝的化石记录都很稀少。此外，甲龙类几乎完全局限于前劳亚大陆，只有一个有效的冈瓦纳分类群。螺旋藻将军 等人。十一月 似乎代表了最早已知的甲龙，也是第一个从非洲命名的甲龙，来自摩洛哥的中侏罗纪（巴松期-卡洛夫期），填补了恐龙进化的重要空白。该标本由一根肋骨组成，其背部表面融合了带刺的真皮盔甲，这是已灭绝和现存脊椎动物中前所未有的形态。该标本揭示了装甲恐龙在早期进化过程中未实现的形态多样性，并暗示存在重要但未被发现的冈瓦纳化石记录。