# Stegosaurus (Stegosaurus stenops) — DinoLand

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### id=5: Stegosaurus (Stegosaurus stenops)

- URL: https://www.dinoland.ai/species.html?lang=en&id=5
- Diet: Herbivore
- Era: Jurassic
- Period: 155–145 million years ago
- Length: 9 m
- Weight: ≈5 t
- Height: 4 m
- Speed: ≈7 km/h
- Habitat: Seasonally dry floodplains with scrubby vegetation
- Region: North America
- Discovered: 1877, Othniel Charles Marsh

Fact: “Double row of plates and a four-spiked thagomizer—iconic armament.”

Description: Stegosaurus is instantly recognized by paired rows of tall dermal plates and four elongate caudal spikes collectively dubbed the thagomizer. Plates may have functioned in display, species recognition, and possibly thermoregulation; the tail weaponry could deliver devastating swings against theropods. Despite popular anecdotes, stegosaurs did not possess a “second brain” in the pelvis—this notion arises from an enlarged neural canal in sacral vertebrae that housed glycogen bodies or nervous expansions unrelated to cognition.

Features:
  - Up to ~17 plates ornamented the dorsal midline in mature individuals
  - Small brain size relative to body mass reflects a basal ornithischian grade
  - Fed selectively on low ferns, cycadophytes, and shrubs

Related genera: Kentrosaurus, Wuerhosaurus, Huayangosaurus


## Citation

Field Journal — Dinosaur Encyclopedia — https://www.dinoland.ai

Web: https://www.dinoland.ai/species.html?lang=en&id=5
Index: https://www.dinoland.ai/llms-en.txt