恐龍卡第 1190 張，共 2 027 張

Miragaia

名字的意思： “wonderful goddess of the Earth”1

吃：植物劍龍類侏羅紀晚期到白堊紀早期

Miragaia was a stegosaur, a plant-eating dinosaur with plates and spines on its back. It had an unusually long neck, much longer than most other stegosaurs. This gentle giant lived in what is now Portugal and the United States during the Late Jurassic period.1 2

生存年代

155 到 121 百萬年前3

侏羅紀晚期到白堊紀早期

化石發現地

Portugal (Lourinhã Formation) and the United States (Morrison Formation in Utah and Wyoming)1 2

長度

5.5 到 6.5 m (18 到 21 ft)1

高度

1.9 m (6.2 ft)

估計值

最高速度

時速約 15 公里（9 英里）

跑步, 估計值

牠生活在什麼時候？

三疊紀

侏羅紀

白堊紀

2 億 5200 萬年前20114566，小行星撞地球

牠有多大？

牠有多長？

牠有多高？

估計值

跟 6 隻狗從鼻子接到尾巴一樣長跟 36 根香蕉頭尾相接一樣長能在 24 秒內跑完 100 公尺（最快的人類要 9.6 秒）

Miragaia 跟「你」比起來有多大？

只是在你的瀏覽器裡算算數學。什麼都不會被儲存或傳送出去。

牠有多快？

走路的人 時速約 5 公里 (3 mph)

騎腳踏車的小朋友 時速約 12 公里 (7 mph)

Miragaia 時速約 15 公里 (9 mph)

一匹飛奔的馬 時速約 65 公里 (40 mph)

一隻獵豹 時速約 100 公里 (62 mph)

酷東西

趣味知識

Miragaia had at least 17 neck vertebrae, giving it a very long neck for a stegosaur. Most stegosaurs had fewer than 13.1

The name Miragaia comes from the village where it was found, Miragaia in Portugal, and also means 'wonderful goddess of the Earth'.1

Miragaia belonged to a group called Dacentrurinae, which includes its close relative Dacentrurus. Scientists used to think many stegosaur fossils from Portugal and Spain were Dacentrurus, but now they know some are Miragaia.1

A nearly complete skeleton of Miragaia was discovered in 1959 in Atouguia da Baleia, Peniche, Portugal, but it was not described until many years later.1

Miragaia shared features with a stegosaur from Wyoming called Alcovasaurus longispinus, suggesting that a land bridge once connected North America and Iberia (Portugal and Spain).1

The plates on Miragaia's back were probably used for display, and the spines on its tail (called a thagomizer) could have been a weapon against predators.1

Miragaia 的 AI 繪圖 — 這是電腦根據科學家目前的知識，用 AI 畫出 Miragaia 可能的樣子。這只是猜測：真正的動物可能長得不一樣，也沒有人知道牠真正的顏色。

迷思破解王

迷思： Miragaia is sometimes thought to be a species of Dacentrurus.

真相： Scientists now agree that Miragaia is a separate, valid genus, different from Dacentrurus in many ways, such as its longer neck and different vertebrae.1

給恐龍專家

學名: Miragaia
命名者: Mateus et al. 20093
類群: 劍龍類
科 / 演化支: Stegosauridae3
分類: Ornithischia > Stegosauria > Thyreophora3
岩石的年代: 155 到 121 百萬年 (Kimmeridgian / Barremian)3
岩層: Morrison3
國家: 美國3
化石紀錄: The Paleobiology Database 收錄 31 筆3
發現: Miragaia was named in 2009 by Octávio Mateus and colleagues, based on a partial skeleton found near the village of Miragaia in the Lourinhã Formation of Portugal. The holotype specimen includes much of the front half of the skeleton.1
仍有爭議: Scientists still debate exactly how many species of Miragaia existed, and whether some fossils from North America belong to this genus or to its close relative Dacentrurus.2