Stegosaurus

At thirty feet long and fourteen feet tall the Stegosaurus is one of the most easily recognizable dinosaurs, particularly today, after the plethora of dino pictures.

The Stegosaurus had a very unique row of plate, or ridges that rose from his back in two separate rows, and long spikes at the end of his tail.

He was an herbivore, and could have eaten massive amounts of leafy greens during the course of a day, perhaps as much as his own body weight in food.

Stegosaurus

His hind feet had three toes, and the front ones had five. The inner two toes each had a hoof attached to them.

All four legs had thick pads behind the toes.

His front legs were a great deal shorter than the back ones and his head was very low to the ground when he held it completely upright, which made him look rather strange as he stood upright.

The tail seems to have been held straight out, off the ground when he walked, perhaps to give him balance.

He had a very long skull, and in proportion to the rest of his body it was very small.

In spite of the fact that he was huge, he had a very small brain, which was about the same size as the average dog of modern times.

One was found in the mid 1880’s that permitted a scientist to test the size and it showed that it was perhaps the smallest of all the dinosaurs.

Stegosaurus

Stegosaurus probably weighted about 5 tons or 10,000 pounds when he was full grown.

Most of our information about him comes from fossils and remains that were found of adult animals, but in recent times, smaller ones have been found.

In 1994, a juvenile was found in Wyoming that shows us that juveniles were about 15 feet long and weight about 2 and one half tons.