Stegouros
Stegouros was a small armoured dinosaur that lived in what is now Chile. It had a very special tail that looked like a giant fern or an Aztec club, made of flat bony plates. This tail weapon was unlike any other dinosaur's!12
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How tall was it?
less than two feet tall
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Fun facts
Stegouros is named after the Aónik'enk people's mythical armoured creature, elengassen.1
Its tail weapon is made of seven pairs of flat bony plates that fuse together at the tip, forming a shape like a frond or an Aztec club called a macuahuitl.12
Stegouros belongs to a special group of southern armoured dinosaurs called Parankylosauria, which split off from other ankylosaurs very early in the Cretaceous.12
Only the tail of Stegouros was truly unique; the rest of its body was more like older, simpler armoured dinosaurs.1
The skeleton was found in 2018 near the Río de las Chinas valley in southern Chile, and it was almost complete with the skull and lower jaws.1
Stegouros lived about 74.9 to 71.7 million years ago, during the Late Cretaceous period.1
Most asked questions about Stegouros
?How big was Stegouros?
Stegouros was a very small ankylosaur, about 1.8 to 2 metres (5.9 to 6.6 feet) long and stood less than 0.6 metres tall.1
?What did Stegouros eat?
Stegouros was a plant-eater. Its leaf-shaped teeth and toothless front snout suggest it ate soft plants.1
?When did Stegouros live?
Stegouros lived during the Late Cretaceous period, about 74.9 to 71.7 million years ago.1
?Where was Stegouros found?
Stegouros was discovered in February 2018 near the Río de las Chinas valley in southern Chile, in the Dorotea Formation.1
?What was Stegouros' tail weapon like?
Stegouros had a unique tail weapon made of seven pairs of flat bony plates that fused together at the tip, forming a shape like a fern or an Aztec club called a macuahuitl.1
?Is Stegouros a dinosaur?
Yes, Stegouros is a dinosaur. It is a type of armoured dinosaur called an ankylosaur.1
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For dino experts
- Scientific name
- Stegouros
- Named by
- Soto-Acuña et al. 20215
- Group
- Armoured dinos
- Family / clade
- Parankylosauria5
- Classification
- Ornithischia > Ankylosauria > Thyreophora5
- Age of the rocks
- 84 to 66 million years (Campanian / Maastrichtian)5
- Rock formations
- Dorotea5
- Countries
- Chile5
- Fossil records
- 1 in the Paleobiology Database5
- Discovery
- Stegouros was named and described in 2021 by Sergio Soto-Acuña and colleagues. The skeleton was found in February 2018 by a team of Texan researchers in the Río de las Chinas valley of southern Chile.1
- Still debated
- Scientists are still debating exactly how Stegouros used its unusual tail weapon, whether for defence against predators or for fighting other Stegouros.1
Where the facts come from
- Stegouros (en.wikipedia.org)
- Bizarre tail weaponry in a transitional ankylosaur from subantarctic Chile | Nature (web.archive.org)
- PBDB Taxon (paleobiodb.org)
- New Armoured Dinosaur from Chile (blog.everythingdinosaur.com)
- Stegouros in The Paleobiology Database (CC BY 4.0): age, places, rock formations, classification.
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