STEGOSAURUS

Stegosaurus stenops

Etymology: Narrow-faced roof lizard

Nickname: "Stego"

Classification: Thyreophora, Stegosauridae

Diet: Herbivore

Size: 7 to 9 meters long

Provenance: Morrison Formation, Colorado, USA - Late Jurassic, Kimmeridgian-Tithonian stage, 155-145 million years ago

Movie appearances: The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997); Jurassic Park III (2001); Jurassic World (2015); Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018); Jurassic World: Dominion (2022)

Stegosaurus stenops is a stegosaurid thyreophoran, and one of the most well known dinosaurs across the world. It is characterized for the two pairs of spikes it has on the tip of its tail that are used for defense against hungry predators. Stegosaurus is also infamous for once being believed that it had two brains, with the second one located near the hip region to better control its tail movements, though in actuality these would be a bundle of ganglia. The plates of this animal are also quite distinctive, and it was believed that it was used for thermorregulation, cooling down or heating up the animal, but they're now regarded as display structures. Its front legs were shorter than the rear ones, providing a great bodyplan for browsing on low-lying vegetation. Despite its spiky appearance, the Stegosaurus (or stegos) are mostly peaceful herbivores that roam in small to large herds, grazing on low-lying fodder.

The body coloration of Stegosaurus is a dark tan with hints of light olive green, with distinctive plates that have dark and light markings, which are useful for display purposes.

Stegosaurus may be docile, but they avoid humans, at least for individuals that are familiar with them; an incident in 1997, in Isla Sorna, saw Dr. Sarah Harding approaching a baby Stegosaurus, which at the time never saw a human before, and allowed her to approach, only for the adult stegosaurs, who have seen humans before, to come in and ward her off. Stegosaurus also engage in isputes, where they may even swing their spiky tails against each other, but to avoid wounds, they may instead bash their tails against rocks, trees or soil, to display strength.

When Stegosaurus was resurrected by InGen in Isla Sorna, with 11 of these dinosaurs being generated. In 1993, Hurricane Clarissa struck the island, and the personnel left it, in the catastrophe, releasing the dinosaurs in the wild, including Stegosaurus. In the island ecosystem of Isla Sorna, Stegosaurus demonstrated themselves as one of the largest animals living there. Stegosaurus demonstrated themselves as being quite protective of their young, and the young themselves are skittish; in 1997, Dr. Sarah Harding reported a youngster panicking due to the noises created by her own film camera. The resulting incident forced Harding to hide in a log, where an aggressive, protective male, threatened her with its terrible thagomizer.

While Stegosaurus lived in Isla Sorna as a wild dinosaur for many years, the species was later brought to Jurassic World, in Isla Nublar, where it lived in captivity, before the park shutting down due to the escape of the Indominus rex, in 2015; after that Stegosaurus roamed freely in the island, frequently grouping in mixed herds with other dinosaurs. Nublar Stegosaurus were shown to occasionally enter into conflict with the carnivorous dinosaurs that were living there, such as Baryonyx. Stegosaurus were also captured and taken to the Mantah Corp island, where laboratory tests and studies were made on this animal. Jurassic World also had genetically altered Stegosaurus with bioluminescence, with the purpose of attracting guests, and these have seemingly escaped to the wild, as well, and were reproducing.

In 2018, the eruption of Mount Sibo threatened the Nublar native population, so a team of mercenaries was sent to ilegally capture some of these dinosaurs; Ken Wheatley, the leader of the mercenaries, even cruelly appropriated the situation to rip off a tooth of a restrained Stegosaurus as a trophy. Later the Stegosaurus were brought to Lockwood Manor, where they were scheduled to be sold for auction, until Claire Dearing and Maisie Lockwood release them, and the other dinosaurs, to the californian wilderness. Wandering in the wild meant that these dinosaurs would have greater encounters with humans, with road accidents being recorded due to the actions of these titans as they crossed human roads. Feral Stegosaurus were often seen grazing on the plant life of California, avoding the grasses, but picking through herbs and ferns that were more palatable to these Jurassic creatures. Because they were so large, Stegosaurus would have no predators in the native wildlife, with only feral large theropods, such as Suchomimus, providing possible threats.

By 2022, the Stegosaurus have wandered and spread across a wide range in western North America, being found as far as British Columbia, in Canada. Presently, it is unknown how many, if any, Stegosaurus are still alive in the north american wilds, or in the protected Biosyn Sanctuary, in Italy.

FILM vs. REALITY

The film Stegosaurus differs sufficiently from its real life counterpart. The size of the film Stegosaurus is pretty variable, sometimes being scaled to a size compatible with its real life counterpart, but other times it is scaled to a degree far larger than what is known for this genus. The plates of Stegosaurus were diamond-shaped in real life, but the film's counterpart frequently reconstructs them in a sail-like shape. The legs of Stegosaurus are elephantine-like in the film, but in reality, the arrangement of the feet of this animal were more nuanced, with defined fingers and claws. The posture of Stegosaurus is depicted as having an arched back and a droopy tail, in the films, which opposes the more straight and slender posture of the real animal, with the tail being held horizontally above tthe ground. The torso of the real life Stegosaurus is rather wide in front view, instead of slender, as in the films. While the spikes of the thagomizer are depicted as curved and pointing upwards in the film's version, the real life Stegosaurus had straight spikes that were pointing a bit more to the sides. The neck of the real life Stegosaurus was considerably longer, with dense armored scales on the underside of it for protection, unlike the short neck of the film's counterpart. Additionally, the uniform dentition of the real life Stegosaurus makes it improbable that it had cheeks, which is not reflected in the films.

Stegosaurus is depicted living in herds and taking care of their young, which is a possible behavior for its real life counterpart, as trackways show stegosaurs moving in groups, with tracks of youngsters accompanying them. The films depict the Stegosaurus galloping, which would be an improbable running gait for the real life animal, which would probably limit itself to trotting or quite simply just walking.