Stegosaurus Stenops Large Bone Plates Along Its Neck, Back and Tail

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Stegosaurus Stenops Large Bone Plates Along Its Neck, Back and Tail

Stegosaurus is a genus of armored dinosaur, with Additional protection was provided around the Stegosaurus stenops large bone plates along its neck, back and tail. It had neck area by bone pebbles embedded in the skin of a very small head and brain. the throat. ese protected the wind-pipe from bites by predators. Like most plant-eating dinosaurs, it had no teeth in the front of its mouth, but only a beak. On the sides of the jaws it had tiny, palm-shaped cheek teeth for chewing so vegetation. ere were 17 bony plates embedded along its back, alternating in alignment. ese plates ran from the neck to the tail and they probably had two purpos- es: One was for show, so that animals could recog- nize each other, or make themselves look bigger and Scienti c Name: Stegosaurus stenops more threatening; the other reason is to get rid of Pronounced: STEG-o-SAWR-us extra body heat in the hot environment in which Name Meaning: roof lizard or plated lizard they lived . Time Period: 156-146 Million Years Ago (MYA) Stegosaurus had three Late Jurassic e largest plates were roughly 2 1/2 feet high and 2 toes on the elephant-like Length: 26 - 30 feet 1/2 feet wide and there were bony spikes on the end hind legs, which were Height: 9 feet tall at the hips of the exible tail. e spikes were up to 18” long signi cantly longer than Weight: 6,800 pounds and were used to protect them from predators. We front legs. e toes had Diet: Herbivore see evidence of this with a damaged Allosaurus tail blunt hooves like many Places Found: throughout the western United vertebra that was pierced by a Stegosaurus spike. plant-eating dinosaurs. States Because it is so front heavy, Discoverer: M. P. Felch, found in Colorado in Stegosaurus walked on all 1885. fours (quadrupedal). e museum’s skeleton is from the Cleve- land-Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry e small blunt teeth show that Stegosaurus was an herbivore. It had a large gut to break down the plants it ate. 155 East Main Street Stegosaurus was most probably prey for the likes of Price, Utah Allosaurus, Torvosaurus, and maybe even smaller 435-637-5060 or 800-817-9949 meat eaters. usueastern.edu/museum.

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