Prehistoric Life/Stegosaurs

Stegosaurs have always been one of the dinosaur groups with only a little number of species described (this cannot be told about their relatives the Ankylosaurs). This explains the shortness of this dino-page, with only three paragraphs. Also note that all the examples below are outside North America; indeed, only one kind of stegosaur is known from this landmass with sureness, the ever-popular Stegosaurus. Another North American genus was described in the 1990s, Hesperosaurus, but it could be another Stegosaurus species. A third genus, "Diracodon", was named during the Bone-Wars, but now is regarded as an invalid synonym of "Stegosaurus".

Porcupinosaurs: Kentrosaurus, Lexovisaurus, and Dacentrurus


 * When you watch a film or even a documentary, good luck if you’ll ever find a stegosaurian which is not Stegosaurus. However, if you do, it would probably be Kentrosaurus. Only half the length of Stegosaurus, its overall body-shape was almost identical to the latter… except for the armor. The usual plates on the neck and back were much smaller and paired (not zigzaging), became gradually spikes on the hip and lasted with at least five pairs of true spikes on the tail. But this is not all, Kentrosaurus had also a pair of isolated spikes arising from its shoulders. A Late Jurassic animal like Stegosaurus, Kentrosaurus was discovered in the 1910s in the same Eastern-African site along with with much bigger dinosaurs like Giraffatitan. Dozens of Kentrosaurus skeletons have been discovered, but with plates/spikes scattered away (as usual among stegosaurs): thus, scientists once thought Kentrosaurus side-spikes were on its hips instead of its shoulders. One mention about [mis-]spelling: Kentrosaurus should never be confused with Centrosaurus . Both names mean “pointed lizard”, but the “points” of Centrosaurus were on its head: it was a ceratopsian. Other two similar-looking but larger porcupinosaurs are known from Europe: Dacentrurus and Lexovisaurus. The former has the distinction to have been described before Stegosaurus itself (in the middle of the 1800s), while Lexovisaurus was named in full XX century. Unfortunately, both are known from incomplete remains, and we are not sure about their precise look or even their size. In 2009, a new stegosaur was excavated in this continent: Miragaia. With its small but abundant plates and unusually long neck, it incidentally resembles the “Dinny” character of the comics Alley Oop.

I've many cousins in China: Tuojiangosaurus, Huayangosaurus, and Wuerhosaurus


 * No other country has gifted us so many stegosaurs than China. The most portrayed is Tuojiangosaurus - don’t worry if you cannot pronounce that “jiang” correctly, unless you are Chinese or Chinese-speaking of course. Discovered in the 1970s, Tuojiangosaurus was basically an Asian variant of Stegosaurus, a bit smaller and with a rather intermediate armor between Kentrosaurus and Stegosaurus: narrow, paired plates like the former, but the usual four tail-spikes (thagomizer) like the latter. With such small plates, it’s hard that Tuojiangosaurus and Kentrosaurus would have used them as solar panels or radiator, unlike what was possible for Stegosaurus. Together with the carnivorous Yangchuanosaurus and the sauropod Mamenchisaurus, Tuojiangosaurus is one of the three classic dinosaurs from Late Jurassic Asia; however, this "Chinese Trio" has yet to appear in recent CGI documentaries. Among the other Chinese steggies: Chialingosaurus, the first discovered (years 1940s); the large-headed, long-limbed Huayangosaurus; and Wuerhosaurus, similar to a short-plated Stegosaurus. A recent find has been called Gigantspinosaurus, due to its giant spines on its shoulders. Huayangosaurus is worthy of note because is the most primitive stegosaur known from good fossil material. Only 4 m long, it still preserved several ancestral traits in its skeleton. Its armor, however, was already fully-stegosaurian, similar to Tuojiangosaurus but also with shoulder-spikes like Kentrosaurus.

Robinson Crusoe dived into the sea: Dravidosaurus


 * Definite stegosaurs appeared in the Middle Jurassic with kinds such as Huayangosaurus (the Early Jurassic Emausaurus might be one, though). Reached their highlights in the Late Jurassic with Stegosauruses Tuojiangosauruses Kentrosauruses and whatnot. But they began their decline in Early Cretaceous, maybe because of competition from the more armored Ankylosaurs; Wuerhosaurus was one of these Cretaceous kinds. However, there was a stegosaur which, uniquely, reached the goal to been hit by the comet: Dravidosaurus. One of the few dinosaurs discovered in India (which was a huge island in Late Mesozoic), the dravidosaur somehow managed to land on it, and flourished there thanks to absence of competiton which other relatives faced in the mainlands. Its status as “The last Stegosaur” gave it several mentions in old books and also some documentaries. Well, all this has collapsed in the worst way possible. In 1996, a re-examination of its extremely fragmentary remains has revealed our Robinson Crusoe-saurus to be 1) not a stegosaur, 2) not a dinosaur, 3) and not even land-living. It was a MARINE REPTILE.