Elen'gasen

The type species Stegouros elengassen combines the Greek stegos, meaning "roof" and oura, meaning "tail", referring to the roof-like covering of the tail end. The specific name elengassen is derived from an armored creature in the mythology of the Aónik’enk, the indigenous inhabitants of the region 

Stegouros possessed a flat, frond-like tail made up of seven pairs of fused osteoderms, in contrast to the massive "clubs" of North American ankylosaurs. It is similar to the Macuahuitl, an Aztec warrior's jagged obsidian-bladed club. Compared to its large northern cousins, Stegouros appeared to be more nimble due to its more slender limbs. Its head had a rudimentary, leaf-shaped tooth arrangement and was somewhat massive.

It was a little, "dog-sized" dinosaur that was around 6.5 feet long and 2 meters long. 

Kunbarrasaurus from Australia and Antarctopelta from the Antarctic Peninsula are actually close relatives. Their tail was unlike other ankylosaurs, sets of osteoderms that has been compared to an macuahuitl.

Stegouros probably utilized its tail as a cutting or slashing weapon to ward off predators, whereas northern ankylosaurs wielded their tails like sledgehammers. Docile and defensive small but terrible creatures, spend much of their time grazing and traveling in search of greener pastures and pinecones. If their young are in danger, the mother and father will try to protect them, head butting or using their tails to club the attacker causing bleeding.

This species, which was found in deltaic deposits (river deltas), most likely inhabited marshy, damp habitats. Stegouros would have been able to cross rivers and wade across shallow floodplains even if he wasn't a "swimmer" in the traditional sense.

Stegouros and other animal fossils belonging to amphibians, mammals, fish, reptiles, and several invertebrates have also been discovered there, along with material belonging to indeterminate sauropods, theropods, and ornithischian dinosaurs. Despite their vulnerability, they have proven to be highly adaptable to many different environments.

Stegouros was a herbivore; its small stature and teeth shaped like leaves indicate that it consumed soft ferns and low-lying plants. It coexisted with a variety of theropods, notably megaraptorids, which were their natural predators. Its main defense against being devoured was its jagged tail and armor.

Reproduction

Like all dinosaurs, it laid eggs. Based on related species, Stegouros likely nested in high-ground areas within their marshy territory.

Stegouros are calm creatures that other animals seek for their meat. Stegouros were herbivores who used their own tails to protect themselves from predators in Patagonia, much like macuahuitls. Stegouros would probably be very defensive if he were still alive. That tail could easily break a human leg despite its diminutive stature. Instead of being a social reptile, it was a wild animal.

Stegouros disappeared 66 million years ago during the K-Pg Mass Extinction, just like its cousins. Specialized herbivores would have perished in the collapse of the world's plant life after the impact of the asteroid.

Stegouros lived in the Dorotea Formation in the southern Chilean Magallanes Basin between 72 and 75 million years ago, during the Late Cretaceous. There were ferns and southern beech trees among the varied vegetation in this lush, humid setting.

• Movement Pattern: Not a Migrant

• Individual Type: Solo, later herd

• Population Trend: Stable

• Population: 

  • Earth (Late Cretaceous): 50,000

  • Earth (Holocene): 0-70

  • Berbania: 70-90

  • Reinachos: 10,500-12,000

• Locomotion: Terrestrial

• Habitat: Temperate Coniferous Forests; Temperate Broadleaf and Mixed Forests; Temperate Deciduous Forests; Temperate Grasslands, Savannas, and Shrublands; Subtropical Coniferous Forests; Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests; Subtropical Dry Broadleaf Forests; Subtropical Grasslands, Savannas, and Shrublands; Salt Flats; Stone Forest; Tropical Coniferous Forests; Tropical Moist Broadleaf Forests; Tropical Dry Broadleaf Forests; Tropical Grasslands; Tropical Savannas and Shrublands; Mediterranean Forests, Woodlands, and Scrub; Mushroom Forests; Mushroom Fields; Deserts and Xeric Shrublands; Badlands; Flooded Grasslands and Savannas; Swamp; Bayous/Billabongs; Riparian; Wetland; Mangrove Forest; Cold Bamboo Forests; Tropical Bamboo Forests; Air-breathing Coral Reefs; Volcano; Warm Ghost Town; Cold Ghost Town; Ruined Skyscraper.

• Earth: 

  • Extinct: Argentina; Chile

Stegouros can be tamed, feeding with ferns.

Coming soon

See also: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1jfuIQucFZ-Z1US1_kCYULFv2PM7dhYFO

Coming soon

• It was decided that only the tail was strictly distinctive. Contrary to all other Ankylosauria that are currently known, the tail is short, with no more than 26 caudal vertebrae, the final 12 of which are covered by seven pairs of massive osteoderms, the last five of which are once more fused together to form a flat linked structure.

• Stegouros belonged to a unique lineage of small ankylosaurs that originated in southern Gondwana during the Cretaceous, together with Antarctopelta from the Antarctic Peninsula and Kunbarrasaurus from Australia. Before Stegouros introduced the defensive tail, provide the two species the distinctive tail.

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stegouros

• https://www.sci.news/paleontology/stegouros-elengassen-10348.html

• https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-04147-1

• https://www.sci.news/paleontology/stegouros-elengassen-10348.html

• https://www.deviantart.com/ognimdo2002/art/Stegouros-elengassen-901378192