The discovery of the dinosaur, Zaaraapelta nomadis, a new family member of the ankylosaur species suggests the Gobi Desert had one of the largest number of the dinosaurs that lived together at the same time, second only to the badlands of southern Alberta, Canada.

The new species was discovered by Phil Currie in the year 2000. The name Zaraapelta is a portmanteau of Greek and Mongolian words for "shield" and "hedgehog" and refers to the ankylosaur's spiky features.

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The word "nomadis" is in honor of the Nomadic Expeditions, a Mongolian company that has facilitated the paleontological fieldwork in the Gobi Desert for almost over 20 years.

The dinosaur is known from a well-preserved skull, which is missing a front of its snout. The top of its skull is spiky and bumpy, similar to the heads of other types of ankylosaurs from the Gobi Desert.

With an elaborate pattern of grooves and bumps around its eyes, Zaraapelts is even more extravagant than other Mongolian species of ankylosaurs.

The skull, which is part of the collection of the Mongolian Paleontological Center in Ulaanbaatar, has distinctive horns on its back and a big ridge along its top.

The distinctive and elaborate ornamentation on the skulls of Zaraapelta, and other members of its species, Saichania and Tarchia, may have been evolved to be able to showcase themselves to the members of the opposite sex, believes Victoria Arbour who led a team of paleontologists that discovered  Zaaraapelta nomadis.

Scientists long believed other species of dinosaurs such as the crested hadrosaurs and ceratopsians equipped with frills and horns the ornaments in sexual displays. The concept, however, has not been applied to ankylosaurs yet.

"You can think of bone as being an expensive item for your body to maintain," she explained. "Bone requires a lot of nutrients and metabolic energy to create, and so that investment needs to pay off in some way."

She added that the ankylosaurs may have had the ornamentation for defensive purposes. Another viable explanation is the bumps and horns on the skulls demonstrated they have superior genes, similar to the message transmitted by male peacocks using their tail feathers.

TagsMongolia, Mongolian dinosaur, Ankylosaur, Gobi Desert, Zaraapelta nomadis, Phil Currie, Victoria Arbour