The Mystery of the Stegosaurus Plates

by Yizuo Pan, age 10

The Stegosaurus was a plant-eating dinosaur with plates on its back, weighing about 14,000 pounds. There were huge spikes on the back of its tail, and the spikes were used to defend themselves from predators by swinging them with great force.

The Stegosaurus was as long as a school bus, and paleontologists named it the “roofed lizard” because the dinosaur had two rows of kite-shaped plates along its back. A paleontologist had also discovered a fossil of a dinosaur that resembled a turtle shell. Its plates are what made the Stegosaurus famous.

The large dinosaur lived about 145 million years ago during the Jurassic period in a region that now consists of Utah, Wyoming, and Colorado. One paleontologist believed that the Stegosaurus had a second brain in its tail because they saw a cavity, like where the brain would be in a skull. Even though this animal was huge, its brain was just barely bigger than a walnut.

There are several theories of what Stegosaurus plates were used for. One theory is that the plates were made out of blood vessels and were used to help regulate the body's temperature. Another theory is that they were on display to attract mates, but no one knows for sure what they were used for.

Even though the Stegosaurus is extinct, scientists today still make new discoveries and continue to learn about how these creatures roamed Earth millions of years ago.

[Sources: National Geographic; National Park Service]