Stegosaurus

classification

Stegosaurus was an herbivorous ornithischian dinosaur, belonging to the group Thyreophora also called Enoplosauria. They were dinosaurs with dermal armor, including both the Stegosaurs and the Ankylosaurs, as well as some others and the group Stegosauridae. Stegosaurus was the largest and one of the last of the Stegosaurids. It was some times called a roof dinosaur. People think that the Stegosaurus has the plates to get body heat. If Stegosaurus used the plates to get its body heat, then Stegosaurus was cold blooded.

What does it look like?

• The Stegosaurus was about 8-9 metres long and 2.75 metres tall it weighed about 3,100 kg his head laid something around 1 metre off the ground and its skull was a long pointed and narrow shape. His brain was the size of a walnut weighing around 60-70 grams. Stegosauruses were toothless except for a few teeth in their cheeks. They often ate rocks to digest their food because they could not chew. Stegosauruses had 17 plates called thagomizers that were alternated across their backs. There were 2 rows and they were made out of bone but they were not solid. The plates were about 76 cm tall and long. They had tubes running out of the plates that warm and cool their bodies. They also had 4 or so spikes on their tails that they used as a defence.

What Does It Eat

• The Stegosaurus was a herbivore that ate mostly moss, ferns, fruits, horsetail, conifers, cycads but there was no grass around at that time and as I said it ate rocks to digest all of the plants.

How does it move

• The Stegosaurus was a slow moving dinosaur that kind of swayed and stomped. His rear legs were double the size of his front leg. his back legs hung out the side of his body. The stegosaurus’s rear legs had 3 toes while the front one had 5 toes.

How does it protect itself

• The Stegosaurus had four spikes on the bottom of his tail that they jabbed into their opponent and after they stabbed them they twisted their tails to give a more effective attack motion. Some of their enemies included the Allosaurus, Ceratosaurus, Marshosaurus, Torvosaurus, and sometimes even packs of smaller meat-eaters like Ornitholestes.

Habitat

• The Stegosaurus was found in these American states. Colorado, Wyoming, and Utah. At that time those states were vastly flooded and a lot of it was coral reef. The climate was warm and moist with the sea level quite high. They lived around 140 to 150 million years ago. They lived in the late Jurassic period probably the last 2/3 of the period.