Stegosaurus

The most famous spiked dinosaur was Stegosaurus. It lived during late Jurassic (156- 144 million years ago) and was discovered by Charles Othniel Marsh in 1877 (Bone Wars). Stegosaurus was described as giant turtle and Marsh thought the plates were in the animals' back. Cope described a new specie Hypsirhophus discurus which we consider it as a synonym of Stegosaurus. Stegosaurus' name means roofed lizard. It belongs to the stegosaurid family among side Kentrosaurus, Tuojiangosaurus etc,. It is separated in three species Stegosaurus ungulatus, Stegosaurus stenops and Stegosaurus sulcatus. Stegosaurus was common in Morrison formation (Montana, New Mexico).Stegosaurus' plates were fragile and he used them to look bigger and also for thermo-regulation. He had four spikes which were used to attack the predators. Stegosaurus grew from 6.5 meters to 9 meters. The teeth were very big to chew the big amount of plants it ate. Stegosaurus had a small brain compared to his huge body so we think he wasn't very smart.