Temporal range: Middle Jurassic - Early Cretaceous, 169–100 Ma
PreꞒ
Ꞓ
O
S
D
C
P
T
J
K
Pg
N
Possible Toarcian, Aalenian and Late Maastrichtian records in the form of fossil tracks and referred fossils.[1][2]
Mounted skeleton of Stegosaurus stenops, Natural History Museum, London
Scientific classification
Domain:
Eukaryota
Kingdom:
Animalia
Phylum:
Chordata
Clade:
Dinosauria
Clade:
†Ornithischia
Clade:
†Thyreophora
Clade:
†Eurypoda
Clade:
†Stegosauria Marsh, 1877
Subgroups[6][7]
†Bashanosaurus[3]
†Craterosaurus[4]
†Gigantspinosaurus
†Isaberrysaura
†Lexovisaurus[4]
†Monkonosaurus
†Yanbeilong[5]
†Huayangosauridae
†Stegosauridae
Stegosauria is a group of herbivorous ornithischian dinosaurs that lived during the Jurassic and early Cretaceous periods. Stegosaurian fossils have been found mostly in the Northern Hemisphere, predominantly in what is now North America, Europe, Africa, South America and Asia. Their geographical origins are unclear; the earliest unequivocal stegosaurian, Bashanosaurus primitivus, was found in the Bathonian Shaximiao Formation of China.
Stegosaurians were armored dinosaurs (thyreophorans). Originally, they did not differ much from more primitive members of that group, being small, low-slung, running animals protected by armored scutes. An early evolutionary innovation was the development of spikes as defensive weapons. Later species, belonging to a subgroup called the Stegosauridae, became larger, and developed long hindlimbs that no longer allowed them to run. This increased the importance of active defence by the thagomizer, which could ward off even large predators because the tail was in a higher position, pointing horizontally to the rear from the broad pelvis. Stegosaurids had complex arrays of spikes and plates running along their backs, hips and tails.
The first stegosaurian finds in the early 19th century were fragmentary. Better fossil material, of the genus Dacentrurus, was discovered in 1874 in England. Soon after, in 1877, the first nearly-complete skeleton was discovered in the United States. Professor Othniel Charles Marsh that year classified such specimens in the new genus Stegosaurus, from which the group acquired its name, and which is still by far the most famous stegosaurian. During the latter half of the twentieth century, many important Chinese finds were made, representing about half of the presently known diversity of stegosaurians.
^Peter M. Galton (2017). "Purported earliest bones of a plated dinosaur (Ornithischia: Stegosauria): a "dermal tail spine" and a centrum from the Aalenian-Bajocian (Middle Jurassic) of England, with comments on other early thyreophorans". Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie - Abhandlungen. 285 (1): 1–10. doi:10.1127/njgpa/2017/0667. S2CID 134361050.
^Peter M. Galton; Krishnan Ayyasami (2017). "Purported latest bone of a plated dinosaur (Ornithischia: Stegosauria), a "dermal plate" from the Maastrichtian (Upper Cretaceous) of southern India". Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie - Abhandlungen. 285 (1): 91–96. doi:10.1127/njgpa/2017/0671.
^Dai, H.; Li, N.; Maidment, S.C.R.; Wei, G.; Zhou, Y.X.; Hu, X.F.; Ma, Q.Y.; Wang, X.Q.; Hu, H.Q.; Peng, G.Z. (2022). "New Stegosaurs from the Middle Jurassic Lower Member of the Shaximiao Formation of Chongqing, China". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 41 (5): e1995737. doi:10.1080/02724634.2021.1995737. S2CID 247267743.
^ abMaidment, S.C.R.; Norman, D.B.; Barrett, P.M.; Upchurch, P. (2008). "Systematics and phylogeny of Stegosauria (Dinosauria: Ornithischia)". Journal of Systematic Palaeontology. 6 (4): 367–407. doi:10.1017/S1477201908002459. S2CID 85673680.
^Jia, Lei; Li, Ning; Dong, Liyang; Shi, Jianru; Kang, Zhishuai; Wang, Suozhu; Xu, Shichao; You, Hailu (2024-01-31). "A new stegosaur from the late Early Cretaceous of Zuoyun, Shanxi Province, China". Historical Biology: 1–10. doi:10.1080/08912963.2024.2308214. ISSN 0891-2963.
^Cite error: The named reference madzia2021 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^Cite error: The named reference maidment2006 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
Stegosauria is a group of herbivorous ornithischian dinosaurs that lived during the Jurassic and early Cretaceous periods. Stegosaurian fossils have been...
Edwin Hennig in 1915. Often thought to be a "primitive" member of the Stegosauria, several recent cladistic analyses find it as more derived than many...
Upper Shaximiao Formation in what is now China. It is a member of the Stegosauria. According to Dong e.a. the Chungkingosaurus jiangbeiensis holotype was...
early Early Jurassic origin for both Ankylosauria and its sister group Stegosauria. The vast majority of stegosaurian dinosaurs thus far recovered belong...
body size. Thyreophora includes two major subgroups, Ankylosauria and Stegosauria. In both clades, the forelimbs were much shorter than the hindlimbs,...
family of thyreophoran dinosaurs (armoured dinosaurs) within the suborder Stegosauria. The clade is defined as all species of dinosaurs more closely related...
IJssel Pers. The Netherlands: Deventer. pp. 1–80. Galton, P. M. (1990). "Stegosauria". In Weishampel, D. B.; Dodson, P.; Osmólska, H. (eds.). The Dinosauria...
flat bone in Scelidosaurus. Skulls in members of the thyreophoran group Stegosauria are much longer and lower, with the width at the back being greater than...
16(402): 435 Hennig, E., 1915, Stegosauria: Fossilium Catalogus I, Animalia pars 9, p. 1-16 Maidment, S. C. R., 2010, "Stegosauria: a historical review of the...
the front opening of the neural canal. These traits are unique for the Stegosauria as a whole and are diagnostic to this taxa. The size of Adratiklit is...
known basal thyreophorans, either closely related to Ankylosauria or Stegosauria+Ankylosauria. A full-grown Scelidosaurus was rather small compared to...
et al. (2024) recovered Yanbeilong as a deeply-nested member of the Stegosauria, as the sister taxon to a clade containing Stegosaurus stenops and Wuerhosaurus...
Barrett, Paul M.; Upchurch, Paul (2008). "Systematics and phylogeny of Stegosauria (Dinosauria: Ornithischia)". Journal of Systematic Palaeontology. 6 (4):...
one distinguishing feature, and while that study still referred it to Stegosauria based on similarity and multiple phylogenetic analyses, no diagnostic...
Barrett, Paul M.; Upchurch, Paul (2008). "Systematics and phylogeny of Stegosauria (Dinosauria: Ornithischia)". Journal of Systematic Palaeontology. 6 (4):...
indicated that Gigantspinosaurus is the most basal known member of the Stegosauria. A 2018 redescription by Hao et al clarified aspects of the anatomy and...
Thomas J.; Maidment, Susannah C. R. (2017-04-18). "A new phylogeny of Stegosauria (Dinosauria, Ornithischia)". Palaeontology. 60 (3): 401–408. doi:10.1111/pala...
Geology. 23: 127–44. Marsh, O. C (1877). "A new order of extinct Reptilia (Stegosauria) from the Jurassic of the Rocky Mountains". American Journal of Science...
additional meanings applied to the name of ankylosaurs. Ankylosauria and Stegosauria together form the two major subgroups of Thyreophora, a group of armoured...
Tuojiangosaurus fell outside of Stegosauridae, though its exact position in Stegosauria (either as an early branching member of the group or a later branching...
Chialingosaurus kuani among the invalid stegosaur taxa in her phylogeny of Stegosauria. This was based upon previous work by Maidment & Wei in 2006 in which...
; Barrett, P.M.; Upchurch, P. (2008). "Systematics and phylogeny of Stegosauria (Dinosauria: Ornithischia)". Journal of Systematic Palaeontology. 6 (4):...
identified it as the front part of a neural arch. Craterosaurus was placed in Stegosauria by Galton, although subsequent authors did not recognize Craterosaurus...
divided dinosaurs into four orders: Sauropoda, Theropoda, Ornithopoda, and Stegosauria (these names are still used today in much the same way to refer to suborders...
long, a typical ankylosaur feature, but they have hollow sides like Stegosauria. Towards the rear of the vertebral column, the transverse processes rise...
Global Information
