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 is a very small ankylosaur. Unlike all other known ankylosaurs, the tail is short with no more than twenty-six caudal vertebrae, the last twelve of which are covered by seven pairs of large osteoderms. Relatively larger neural canal, longer dorsosacral vertebrae, higher and narrower vertebral bodies of the sacral vertebrae, absence of ossified tendons on the tail, teeth with six serrations on the anterior margin instead of seven or eight. Five additional vertebrae are enclosed in a structure made of osteoderms that has been compared to an Aztec macuahuitl.

Stegouros' tail was distinctive from that of other ankylosaurs, which had osteoderms like to a macuahuitl.

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. Using their own tail resembles a macuahuitl for self-defense against predators in Patagonia, and the world.

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.

Stegouros are calm creatures that other animals seek for their meat. But when they use their tail to intentionally hurt your legs and shins, they become defensive.

Stegouros was discovered in the Dorotea Formation, in the Río de Las Chinas Valley of the Magallanes Basin in Patagonian Chile.

• 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: All

• Earth: 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