Prepare to be amazed! A recently discovered dinosaur fossil has revealed the incredible strength of ancient armor. This isn’t just any fossil; it’s the best-preserved dinosaur fossil ever found, belonging to a nodosaur, a plant-eating dinosaur that roamed the Earth about 110 to 112 million years ago. This incredible preservation allows scientists to unlock the secrets of its powerful armor.
Imagine this: a nodosaur, measuring a massive 18 feet long, with bony spikes and plates covering its body. The armor wasn’t just for show; it was incredibly tough, capable of withstanding the force of a car crash! This is thanks to a thick layer of keratin, the same substance that makes up our hair and nails, that covered the bony armor.
“This thing could tank an F150 going at speed,” said Michael Habib, a biomechanical paleontologist at UCLA, who presented his findings at the Society for Vertebrate Paleontology’s annual meeting.
Previous fossils of armored dinosaurs only showed bony structures because keratin doesn’t fossilize well. Scientists previously believed the armor was mainly for protection from predators, with a thin layer of keratin on top, like a turtle shell.
However, the exceptional fossil of a nodosaur species named *Borealopelta markmitchelli*, found in a Canadian mine in 2017, revolutionized our understanding. This remarkable fossil, so well preserved that researchers could analyze its color and even its last meal, showed a significantly thicker layer of keratin than expected – nearly 6.3 inches in some areas!
Habib and his colleagues used the structure and size of the keratin sheaths, comparing them to modern animals like porcupines, to calculate the force the nodosaur’s armor could withstand. They even created synthetic nodosaur armor for the CBC show “Dinosaur Cold Case” and tested it against a replica Acrocanthosaurus jaw. The results were astonishing: the nodosaur’s armor could handle over 125,000 joules of energy per square meter, similar to the impact of a high-speed car crash.
This strength wasn’t just for defense against predators. “Borealopelta is living in a world of big, meat-eating dinosaurs,” Habib explained. “They could bite really hard. If you have very stiff, brittle armor that’s relying on bone and you hit it really hard, it’s going to crack.”
The keratin sheaths provided flexibility and could be easily replaced if damaged, much like trimming a broken nail. This suggests that the armor may have also been used in fights between males for mates.
This discovery provides valuable insights into dinosaur armor and its potential uses. “Most other armored dinosaurs also likely had thick keratin sheaths, and horned dinosaurs, with their armored and weaponized faces and heads — there’s a very good chance they are using a lot more keratin than is often modeled,” Habib said.
The next time you see a dinosaur in a movie, remember the incredible strength and resilience of their armor, a testament to the ingenuity of nature and the fascinating discoveries that paleontologists continue to unearth.
