Dinosaurs! - Stegosaurus

Stegosaurus
"Plated Reptile"

Order: Ornithischia
Suborder: Thyreophora
Family: Stegosauridae

Physical Characteristics

30' long

Brain the size of a walnut.

Huge, heavy body

Small blunt teeth

Hind limbs twice as long as forelimbs

Tail armed with sharp spikes

Herbivore

Fossil Sites

Colorado, Oklahoma, Utah, Wyoming; USA

Geologic Age

Late Jurassic

Paleo Notes

It still isn't completely known what the plates on the back of Stegosaurus were used for. It has been theorized that they were a type of heat-exchanger or cooling system for the animal. Then again, they may only have been as a self-defense mechanism against predators.

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