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Stegosaurus statue at Bałtów Jurassic Park, Bałtów, Poland.
Stegosaurus statue at Bałtów Jurassic Park, Bałtów, Poland.

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A large, heavily built and

quadruped, Stegosaurus had a distinctive and unusual posture, with a heavily arched back, short forelimbs, head held low to the ground and a stiffened tail held high in the air. Its array of plates and spikes have been the subject of much speculation. The spikes were most likely used for defence, while the plates have also been proposed as a defensive mechanism, as well as having display and thermoregulatory (heat control) functions. Stegosaurus was the largest of all the stegosaurians (bigger than genera such as Kentrosaurus and Huayangosaurus) and, although roughly bus-sized, it nonetheless shared many anatomical features (including the tail spines and plates) with the other stegosaurian genera. (see more...
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