Appendix 1.3 Dinosaur Profile: the Stegosaurus

Appendix 1.3 Dinosaur Profile: The Stegosaurus

Dinosaur Profile: The Stegosaurus The stegosaurus was a dinosaur that lived and shrubs, mosses, ferns, and fruits. It in the Late Jurassic Period, about 150 mil- would have had to defend itself against lion years ago. It roamed western North predators and might have used the spikes America and has been discovered in other on its tail and the plates on its back to pro- parts of the world too. The name stegosau- tect itself. The stegosaurus probably lived in rus means “roofed lizard,” since the plates herds, not alone. on its back look like tiles for a roof. Stegosaurus fossils have been discov- A stegosaurus could weigh over 6,000 ered in Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming. pounds. It could grow up to 30 feet long They’ve also been found in Portugal, India, and 9 feet tall. Its hind legs were about and China. The stegosaurus was named twice as long as its front legs, which meant by Othniel Charles Marsh in 1877. Marsh it walked with its head low to the ground. was a scientist who studied dinosaurs and It had a long, spiked tail and two rows of discovered many new species. He fought bony, triangle-shaped plates on its back. with another scientist, Edward Drinker Even though it was huge, the stegosaurus Cope, in the Bone Wars, a mad race across had a very small brain: only 2.8 ounces. America to find fossils. Marsh and Cope The stegosaurus was an herbivore, which hated each other, and they found lots of means it ate plants. It probably ate bushes fossils while trying to beat each other.