stegosaurus

Everyday

1. A stegosaurus was a large plant-eating dinosaur with two rows of big bony plates along its back and sharp spikes on its tail. tree →
2. The name means «roof lizard» because people once thought its plates lay flat like roof tiles. tree →

In the lessons

In lessons about dinosaurs and fossils, stegosaurus is a favourite example: it lived in the Jurassic period, walked on four legs, had a tiny brain for its big body, and used its spiked tail (called a thagomizer) to defend itself. It lived long before Tyrannosaurus rex, so they never met. Phrases: «a stegosaurus skeleton», «back plates», «tail spikes».

Examples

• The stegosaurus had plates on its back and spikes on its tail. tree →
• Stegosaurus ate ferns and low plants. tree →
• We saw a stegosaurus skeleton at the Natural History Museum. tree →
• A stegosaurus was as long as a bus. tree →
• Its brain was surprisingly small, about the size of a dog's. tree →
• The plates may have helped it warm up or show off to other stegosauruses. tree →
• My little brother's favourite dinosaur toy is a green stegosaurus. tree →

Note

Plural «stegosauruses» (sometimes «stegosauri»). As a scientific name it is written with a capital: Stegosaurus. Say STEG-uh-SORE-us. Myth: it did not have a second brain in its hip. Trap: stegosaurus and T. rex lived millions of years apart; more time separates them than separates T. rex from us.