Stegosaurus

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Stegosaurus, (-150 million years), fossil and cast. Musée d’histoire naturelle (Brussels, Belgium). Made with Capturing Reality. Stegosaurus, from Greek stegos which means roof and sauros which means lizard, is a genus of thyreophoran dinosaur. Fossils of this genus date to the Late Jurassic period, about 155 to 150 millions years ago. These were large, heavily built, herbivorous quadrupeds with rounded backs, short fore limbs, long hind limbs, and tails held high in the air. Due to their distinctive combination of broad, upright plates and tail tipped with spikes, Stegosaurus is one of the most recognizable kinds of dinosaur. The function of this array of plates and spikes has been the subject of much speculation among scientists. Today, it is generally agreed that their spiked tails were most likely used for defense against predators, while their plates may have been used primarily for display, and secondarily for thermoregulatory. For more updates, please follow me on Twitter at @GeoffreyMarchal.