Temporal range: Middle Jurassic - Early Cretaceous,168–100 Ma
PreꞒ
Ꞓ
O
S
D
C
P
T
J
K
Pg
N
Possible Late Maastrichtian record
Mounted skeleton of Stegosaurus specimen Natural History Museum, London
Scientific classification
Domain:
Eukaryota
Kingdom:
Animalia
Phylum:
Chordata
Clade:
Dinosauria
Clade:
†Ornithischia
Clade:
†Thyreophora
Clade:
†Stegosauria
Family:
†Stegosauridae Marsh, 1880
Subgroups[6]
†Kentrosaurus
†Loricatosaurus
†Mongolostegus[1]
†Paranthodon
†Tuojiangosaurus
†Dacentrurinae[2]
†Alcovasaurus?
†Adratiklit
†Dacentrurus
†Miragaia
†Thyreosaurus[3]
†Stegosaurinae[4][5]
†Chialingosaurus?
†Hesperosaurus
†Hypsirhophus?
†Jiangjunosaurus?
†Stegosaurus
†Wuerhosaurus
†Yingshanosaurus?
Stegosauridae is a family of thyreophoran dinosaurs (armoured dinosaurs) within the suborder Stegosauria. The clade is defined as all species of dinosaurs more closely related to Stegosaurus than Huayangosaurus.[7] The name ‘Stegosauridae’ is thus a stem-based name taken from the well-represented genus – Stegosaurus (meaning ‘roofed lizard’).[8] Fossil evidence of stegosaurids, dating from the Middle Jurassic through the Early Cretaceous, have been recovered from North America, Eurasia and Africa.[9][10]
The clade Stegosauridae is composed of the genera Stegosaurus, Dacentrurus, Miragaia, Loricatosaurus, and Kentrosaurus, with the last considered to be at the base of the clade.[11] The stegosaurids like all other stegosaurians were quadrupedal herbivores that exhibited the characteristic stegosaurian dorsal dermal plates. These large, thin, erect plates are thought to be aligned parasagittally from the neck to near the end of the tail. The end of the tail has pairs of spikes, sometimes referred to as a thagomizer.[8][10] Although defense, thermo-regulation and display have been theorized to be the possible functions of these dorsal plates, a study of the ontogenetic histology of the plates and spikes suggests that the plates serve different functions at different stages of the stegosaurids’ life histories. The terminal spikes in the tail are thought to have been used in old adults, at least, as a weapon for defence.[12] However, the function of stegosaurid plates and spikes, at different life stages, still remains a matter of great debate.
Stegosaurids are distinguished from other stegosaurians in that the former have lost the plesiomorphic pre-maxillary teeth and lateral scute rows along the trunk.[13] Furthermore, stegosaurids as have long narrow skulls and longer hindlimbs compared to their forelimbs.[10] However, these two features are not diagnostic of Stegosauridae because they may also be present in non-stegosaurid stegosaurians.[7]
^Tumanova, T.A.; Alifanov, V.R. (2018). "First Record of Stegosaur (Ornithischia, Dinosauria) from the Aptian-Albian of Mongolia". Paleontological Journal. 52 (14): 1771–1779. doi:10.1134/S0031030118140186. S2CID 91559457.
^Costa, F.; Mateus, O. (2019). "Dacentrurine stegosaurs (Dinosauria): A new specimen of Miragaia longicollum from the Late Jurassic of Portugal resolves taxonomical validity and shows the occurrence of the clade in North America". PLOS ONE. 14 (11): e0224263. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0224263. PMC 6853308. PMID 31721771.
^Zafaty, O.; Oukassou, M.; Riguetti, F.; Company, J.; Bendrioua, S.; Tabuce, R.; Charrière, A.; Pereda-Suberbiola, X. (2024). "A new stegosaurian dinosaur (Ornithischia: Thyreophora) with a remarkable dermal armour from the Middle Jurassic of North Africa". Gondwana Research. doi:10.1016/j.gr.2024.03.009.
^Cite error: The named reference :7 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^Rauhut, O.W.M.; Carballido, J.L.; Pol, D. (2021). "First Osteological Record of a Stegosaur (Dinosauria, Ornithischia) from the Upper Jurassic of South America". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 40 (6): e1862133. doi:10.1080/02724634.2020.1862133. S2CID 234161169.
^ abDavid B. Weishampel, Peter Dodson, Halszka Osmólska. The Dinosauria (2nd ed.). Berkeley: University of California Press.
^ abBillon-Bruyat, Jean-Paul; Marty, Daniel (2010-09-04). "Preface: Symposium on Stegosauria proceedings". Swiss Journal of Geosciences. 103 (2): 139–141. doi:10.1007/s00015-010-0027-z. ISSN 1661-8726.
^Ulansky R. E., 2014. Dinosaurs Classification. Basal Thyreophora & Stegosauria. Dinologia,
^ abcSereno, Paul C. (1999-06-25). "The Evolution of Dinosaurs". Science. 284 (5423): 2137–2147. doi:10.1126/science.284.5423.2137. ISSN 0036-8075. PMID 10381873.
^Maidment, Susannah C. R. (2010-09-07). "Stegosauria: a historical review of the body fossil record and phylogenetic relationships". Swiss Journal of Geosciences. 103 (2): 199–210. doi:10.1007/s00015-010-0023-3. ISSN 1661-8726. S2CID 84415016.
^Hayashi, Shoji; Carpenter, Kenneth; Watabe, Mahito; McWHINNEY, Lorrie A. (2012-01-01). "Ontogenetic histology of Stegosaurus plates and spikes". Palaeontology. 55 (1): 145–161. doi:10.1111/j.1475-4983.2011.01122.x. ISSN 1475-4983.
^Sereno, Paul C., and Dong Zhimin. "The Skull of the Basal Stegosaur Huayangosaurus Taibaii and a Cladistic Diagnosis of Stegosauria." Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 12, no. 3 (1992): 318-43. https://www.jstor.org/stable/4523456.
Stegosauridae is a family of thyreophoran dinosaurs (armoured dinosaurs) within the suborder Stegosauria. The clade is defined as all species of dinosaurs...
of Stegosaurus from the North American Morrison Formation within the Stegosauridae. Fossils of K. aethiopicus have been found only in the Tendaguru Formation...
defensive weapons. Later species, belonging to a subgroup called the Stegosauridae, became larger, and developed long hindlimbs that no longer allowed...
majority of stegosaurian dinosaurs thus far recovered belong to the Stegosauridae, which lived in the later part of the Jurassic and early Cretaceous...
sheath of a stegosaurian back plate. Hesperosaurus was a member of the Stegosauridae, quadrupedal plant-eaters protected by vertical bony plates and spikes...
of the tail, angled at approximately 45 degrees to the vertical. In stegosauridae, this spike arrangement has become affectionately known as the "thagomizer"...
et al. (2024) recovered Thyreosaurus as dacentrurine member of the Stegosauridae, as the sister taxon to Dacentrurus. These species are in turn sister...
base. Galton and Carpenter considered Alcovasaurus a member of the Stegosauridae, not more closely related to Kentrosaurus than to Stegosaurus. However...
former relationship, close to Hesperosaurus and Dacentrurus as basal in Stegosauridae. Wuerhosaurus was recovered in a different position by Escaso et al...
assigned to Anthodon. In 1882, Othniel Charles Marsh assigned Anthodon to Stegosauridae based on BMNH 47338, and in 1890, Richard Lydekker found that although...
later seen as part of some tail arrangement. Miragaia was placed in the Stegosauridae in 2009. Mateus and colleagues performed a phylogenetic analysis and...
preoccupied. In the twentieth century Dacentrurus was usually assigned to the Stegosauridae. In 1957, Robert Hoffstetter thought that Dacentrurus was more derived...
Huayangosaurinae was originally differentiated by the remaining taxa within Stegosauridae by the presence of teeth in the premaxilla, an antorbital fenestra,...
2008 and 2010 place Loricatosaurus as a basal genus within the family Stegosauridae. Dinosaurs portal Timeline of stegosaur research Maidment, Susannah...
Iguanodontoidea by Hay in 1902, to Ornithischia by von Huene in 1909, to Stegosauridae by von Zittel in 1911, and to Titanosaurinae by Steel in 1970, and also...
Jiangjunosaurus was placed in the Stegosauridae in 2007. The describers concluded that within the Stegosauridae it had a basal position. This was not...
veined surface.[citation needed] Zhu placed Yingshanosaurus, within the Stegosauridae, in the Stegosaurinae.[citation needed] Dinosaurs portal Timeline of...
2018. Tumanova and Alifanov (2018) found Mongolostegus to belong to Stegosauridae. Timeline of stegosaur research T. A. Tumanova & V. R. Alifanov. (2018)...
Yang in 1959 placed Chialingosaurus in the Stegosaurinae within the Stegosauridae. In 1969, Rodney Steel suggested that Chialingosaurus might have actually...
record of the family Stegosauridae", Geobios, 16: 219–229 Galton P.M. (1985) "British plated dinosaurs (Ornithischia, Stegosauridae), Journal of Vertebrate...
Nodosauridae (1890), Ornithomimidae (1890), Plateosauridae (1895), and Stegosauridae (1880). Marsh dubbed many additional species of dinosaur as well, notable...
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