World’s toughest dinosaur with built-in bulletproof armour would survive being hit by TRUCK, ‘best ever fossil’ reveals
THE remains of the world’s toughest dinosaur, that had bulletproof armour, have revealed how shockingly strong the prehistoric animal was.
These surprisingly well preserved fossils shared how this creature, known as a nodosaur, would have been able to survive being hit by a truck.
These nodosaur remains have been declared some of the best preserved fossils ever discovered on earth.
As a member of the Ankylosaur family, the nodosaur’s 18-foot-long body was covered in bone plates.
Scientists shared that these fossils were still covered in keratin, which is a protein that does not fossilise well.
This discovery not only made these bones the best-preserved dinosaur on record but it allowed researchers to uncover an extraordinary characteristic of its body.
They were able to find out these keratin bone plates that covered the dinosaur made their bodies resistant to other terrifying animals, researcher Michael Habib told Live Science.
He said: “This thing could tank an F150 going at speed.”
Habib added: “These animals were not wearing plate armor, they were wearing a bulletproof vest over plate armor.”
Scientists also shared an added advantage these keratin bones gave the dinosaur.
In a world full of other deadly predators the nodosaur’s bones were protected by this flexible keratin.
Habib said: “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.”
Researchers explained that these keratin covers would allowed this herbivorous creature to simply remove a section to avoid more damage.
These 110 to 112 million year old fossils were discovered in 2017 in Alberta, Canada.
Researchers added that the remains were so well preserved they were even to find out it’s last meal was a selection of plants.
Why did the dinosaurs die out?
Here's what you need to know...
- The dinosaur wipe-out was a sudden mass extinction event on Earth
- It wiped out roughly three-quarters of our planet’s plant and animal species around 66million years ago
- This event marked the end of the Cretaceous period, and opened the Cenozoic Era, which we’re still in today
- Scientists generally believe that a massive comet or asteroid around 9 miles wide crashed into Earth, devastating the planet
- This impact is said to have sparked a lingering “impact winter”, severely harming plant life and the food chain that relied on it
- More recent research suggests that this impact “ignited” major volcanic activity, which also led to the wiping-out of life
- Some research has suggested that dinosaur numbers were already declining due to climate changes at the time
- But a study published in March 2019 claims that dinosaurs were likely “thriving” before the extinction event