New Long-Spined Dinosaur With 'Mohawk of Large Spikes' Discovered In Patagonia (sciencealert.com)

"Researchers in Argentina have discovered a new Sauropod with unusually long spikes protruding forward from its body," writes Slashdot reader dryriver. The findings have been published in the journal Scientific Reports. ScienceAlert reports: Living 140 million years ago in the early Lower Cretaceous, the newly discovered herbivore Bajadasaurus pronuspinax had a thing for growing spikes. It was part of the Sauropod family, but looked a little like a small Brontosaurus crossed with a porcupine. "The sauropods are the big dinosaurs with long necks and long tails, but specifically this is a small family within the sauropods which were about 9 or 10 meters in length," paleontologist Pablo Gallina from the National Scientific and Technical Research Council in Argentina told Agencia EFE. Bajadasaurus was a species of this small family, called Dicraeosauridae, all of which have similar spines on their necks. When the researchers discovered the fossils of this previously unknown dinosaur in Patagonia, Argentina, the remains included not only most of the skull, but a whole spine bone. This gave the researchers the chance to investigate what these spines might have been used for. "We believe that the long and sharp spines -- very long and thin -- on the neck and back of Bajadasaurus and Amargasaurus cazaui (another dicraeosaurid) must have been to deter possible predators," explained Gallina to AFP.'

Comments

Re:Anomaly?

[Anonymous Coward]

Image from the article.
The white parts are the found ones, the gray are speculated.
Bottom right for the configuration they were found in.

There is a lot of extrapolation going on.
I think I'll wait until a second specimen have been found until I speculate too much.

Re:These defenses are weird

[Dunbal]

Bone has no pain receptors. The extreme pain that people associate with bone actually comes from the periosteum, a pain receptor rich membrane that covers every bone. The tearing of this membrane causes pain, and because bones tend to bleed profusely, the swelling underneath this membrane at and around the site of the break also causes a lot of pain. The bone itself however does not cause pain. Since this bone is outside the dinosaur's body one can assume that it's not covered in periosteum.