Stegosaurus

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Stegosaurus, (-150 million years), fossil and cast. Musée d'histoire naturelle (Brussels, Belgium). Made with Capturing Reality. Stegosaurus originates from the Greek words stegos meaning roof and sauros meaning lizard, making it a genus of thyreophoran dinosaur. Fossils belonging to this genus date back to the Late Jurassic period, approximately 155 to 150 million years ago. These massive herbivorous quadrupeds were characterized by their rounded backs, short forelimbs, long hind limbs, and tails held high in the air. Due to their unique combination of broad, upright plates and tail tipped with spikes, Stegosaurus is one of the most recognizable types of dinosaurs. Scientists have extensively speculated about the function of this array of plates and spikes. Today, it's widely accepted that their spiked tails were primarily used for defense against predators, while their plates may have been used mainly for display and secondarily for thermoregulation. Follow me on Twitter at @GeoffreyMarchal for more updates.