Bizarre dog-sized dinosaur fossil which had 7 pairs of blades as tail discovered in Chile

Researchers in Chile discovered a new dinosaur species that had a unique slashing tail weapon, reported a study published in the journal Nature. As per palaeontologists, the dog-sized dinosaur dating back 72-75 million years ago had spiked tails that could be uses as stabbing weapons. Some of them also had tails with clubs and seven pairs of "blades" pair out sideways like a slicing weapon used by ancient Aztec warriors, Alex Vargas, lead author of the study said in a statement.

The rare armoured dinosaur with a semi-articulated skeleton of small built (approximately 2 meters) from the Late Cretaceous period of Magallanes in southernmost Chile is called Stegourous Elengassen. "Stegouros shows ankylosaurian cranial characters, but a largely ancestral postcranial skeleton, with some stegosaur-like characters," the study elaborated. The plant-eating critter is said to have a combination of traits from different species that initially directed palaeontologists to the wrong path, the study said.

"It’s a really unusual weapon,” said Vargas, a University of Chile paleontologist, as per the Associated Press. “Books on prehistoric animals  for kids need to update and put this weird tail in there. ... It just looks crazy,” he added.

Vargus and his team examined the pieces and skull of the fossil. After five DNA analyses, the researchers concluded that it was only distantly related to the stegosaurus. It was also discovered that the dinosaur species belonged to a rare southern hemisphere member of the tank-like ankylosaur family of dinosaurs, which prompted Vargus to call it "the lost family branch of the ankylosaur."

[Image: AP]

From snout to the tip of its tail measured only 6feet

The discovered fossil was found with its front end flat on its belly and back end angled down to a lower level, indicating that it could have caught in quicksand, Vargas said, as per the Associated Press. The dinosaur appeared to be an adult based on the fusion of the bones, he added. From its bird-like snout to the tip of its tail, the Stegourous measured about six feet, but it's height would come only to the "thighs of humans."

According to Vargas, the tail was assumed to be used for defence against large predators. The tail is not just "really bizzare" but it is from far Southern Chile, “a region that hasn’t yielded these types of animals before,” said Kristi Curry Rogers, a biologist at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minn., who wasn’t part of the study.

“Stegourus reminds us that, if we look in the right places at the right times, there is so much more still to discover," Rogers added.

(With inputs from AP, Image: Unsplash (representative)