They discovered a new armored dinosaur in the UK

The Isle of Wight is located off the southern coast of England, where a new type of armored dinosaur with spikes on its body was discovered. According to a statement issued by the Natural History Museum in London, the animal was named “Vectipelta Barretti”, and it is the first armored dinosaur or ankylosaurus to be found on the island in 142 years.

According to the team of researchers who found the dinosaur, it lived in the early Cretaceous period, dating from 145 to 100.5 million years ago. Nowadays there are few excavations belonging to this period. Since there are no records from the early Cretaceous period, these kinds of findings help experts better understand how life evolved at that time.

According to Stuart Bond, a researcher at the Natural History Museum, this specimen is very important because it provides evidence of the diversification of ankylosaurs in early Wessex and early Cretaceous England. Bond added in the statement that over the course of 142 years, the remains of ankylosaurs that were discovered on the island were assigned to the “Polacanthus foxii” specimen, but now with this discovery, a door has been opened to review findings from the past because a new type of dinosaur.

The new species in relation to the ‘Polacanthus foxii’ species show several differences. This can be seen in the differences in the dinosaur’s neck and hind vertebrae, as well as its pelvis and toothed armor. According to the analysis team, “Vectipelta Barretti” is more closely related to Chinese ankylosaurs. This may amount to proving the validity of a theory that these dinosaurs were able to move between the continents of Asia and Europe during the early Cretaceous period.

Notably, this new species of ankylosaur is named after Professor Paul Barrett, an academic who worked at the museum for 20 years. Paul Barrett expressed in the statement that he was flattered and happy to be recognized in this way. What was most surprising, Barrett stressed, was that the first article he wrote was about an armored dinosaur at the Natural History Museum.