| Stegosaurus |
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Stegosaurus is a well known genus of dinosaur from the late Jurassic period, mainly associated with the North American region, but with fossils also recently found in Portugal. Stegosaurus is one of the most well recognised of all dinosaurs, due to the nature of their body armor and their highly distinctive tail spikes. With an average size of nine metres in length and four metres in height, Stegosaurus was not a particularly large dinosaur compared to many of their contemporaries, although they would certainly be a huge animal by the standards of today. Their distinctive features and statuesque quadrupedal body make Stegosaurus one of the most well represented dinosaurs in the world today, and they are often featured in popular and scientific media. Life size Stegosaurus models can be found in a number of museums around the world, and the majority of both children and adults are familiar with this iconic dinosaur. Stegosaurus dinosaurs were herbivorous animals, mainly using their plated body armor and tail spikes for defensive purposes. Palaeontologists think that they would have eaten mosses, fruits, ferns, and cycads, as the grasses eaten by modern herbivores did not exist during the time they were alive. The different sizes of their front and back legs, and the fact that each forefoot had five toes and each rear foot only had three, gave Stegosaurus a stocky and unusual posture, although it was a successful dinosaur which was obviously well suited to its grazing and defensive lifestyle. Their narrow and long skull was also in small proportion to their overall body, putting even more emphasis on their stocky build and distinctive appearance. With the recent fossils found in Portugal giving evidence that Stegosaurus once lived in Europe as well as in America, hopefully we can learn even more about this magnificant dinosaur in years to come. |
