🔺Stegosaurs

Plates and tail spikes

Ornithischia › Thyreophora › Stegosauria

Stegosaurs were plant-eaters with tall plates on their backs and sharp spikes on their tails. They swung their spiky tails to fight off hungry hunters. Their heads were small for such big bodies.

Stegosaurs are thyreophoran ("shield-bearing") ornithischians that lived from the Middle Jurassic into the Early Cretaceous, with the group best known from Late Jurassic rocks of North America, Europe, Africa and China. Their plates were made of bone with a network of blood-vessel grooves, so they were probably used for display and species recognition rather than armour, and possibly also for shedding or absorbing heat. A wounded Allosaurus tail bone with a hole that matches a stegosaur tail spike shows that the thagomizer was a real weapon. Notable members include Stegosaurus, Kentrosaurus, Huayangosaurus and the long-necked Miragaia.