Stegosaurus Ungulatus

Воскресенье, 14 Февраля 2021 г. 21:15 + в цитатник

NAME MEANING - Roofed Lizard
HEIGHT - 13ft (with plates)
LENGTH - 29ft
WEIGHT - 1.8 Tonnes
LOCATION - North America - Morrison formation
TIME PERIOD - Kimmeridgian to early Tithonian stages of the Jurassic - 155-150 million years ago
DIET - Herbivore
CLASSIFICATION - Archosaur - Dinosaur - Ornithochian
FAMILY - Thyreophoran - Stegosauridae - Stegosaur

Stegosaurus was found in 1877 during the infamous event in paleontology history known as "The Bone Wars" and ever since then has been one of the most popular inosaurs depicted in media.

As a Thyreophoran it is a close relative to the Cretaceous period dinosaurs like Ankylosaurus and Edmontonia, but were they were heavily armored animals, Stegosaurs were rather lightly protected in comparison.
Stegosaurus lived in north America during the Jurassic period, in a formation called the Morrison formation, it lived along side other Dinosaurs like Dryosaurus, Diplodocus, Ceratosaurus and Allosaurus.
With the abundance of sauropods feeding on the mid to high growing plants stegosaurus had little competition as a low ground grazer feeding on the shrubs and ferns that grew in its ecosystem.
There is evidence that Stegosaurus held stones in its stomach, these stones were used to grind up devoured vegitation and were called gastroliths, these were swallowed in order to help grind up tough plant matter within its guts as plant material is harder to digest than meat is.
There is also evidence to show that Stegosaurus had cheeks, this would lead to believe that it was able to chew its food before swallowing aiding with digestion, though the jaws could only move up and down meaning it wouldn't have helped too much as it couldn't grind the food in its mouth.

The name means "Roofed Lizard" which stems from how when Paleontologists 1st found the animals iconic plates, they believed they covered the upper part of the animals body, similar to how Pangolin scales act as armor, forming a roof over the body.
This was later revised to have the plates trail down the back in a fully erect position.

The use of the plates have been theorized many times as either a type of armor, heat regulation or intimidation, though with recent discoveries stating that the plates had different shapes depending on the gender of the animal, they were most likely used for courtship and gender identification with males having larger and more rounded plates and females having thinner more triangular shaped plates, the males most likely had bright colours on these plates, these plates have also been said to have been highly sensitive meaning they could also have been used as a type of sensory organ to sense the world around them without having to look directly at their surroundings.

More discoveries of Stegosaurus has revealed that the animal had toughened scales around its throat area, this would have helped protect the vital area from predators like Allosaurus and Ceratosaurus,

For defense the Stegosaurus possessed four 1 meter long spikes on the end of its tail, these spikes have gained the name "Thagomizers" after a comic strip by a man called Gary Larson in 1982 invented the word, the Thagomizer has been a paleontology term ever since.
There has been evidence of these spikes being used against predators like Allosaurus, with a fossilized hip bone having a large puncture in it suggesting the stegosaurus managed to get a shot at the attackers "private area" this not only shows that they were used as weapons but this also shows that there was a predator prey relationship between the 2 dinosaurs.
Some stegosaurus individuals have been found with hardened throat scales which would have given the animal a bit of protection for the vital area.

OK, so right off the bat i will admit i used a reference for the pose, and to be honest, i am glad i did as it helped a lot with my weakness of perspective, i did tweak some bits though, tail length and plate shape for example, also it was a lot of fun adding flesh to a skeleton, after this picture was finished it made me realize i should use photo references more often, because it is VERY helpful.
designing the pattern and design too was also a lot of fun too, the tail stripes i wanted give off a Wasp like vibe with the stripes acting as a warning as to what end is what, and possibly scaring away some small predators, add tha with brightly coloures plates and i hopefully managed to make it come across like a living hazard sign