#Prehistoric Creatures - Stegosaurus.

Stegosaurus. The Dumbest Dinosaur.

Recently I presented the characteristics of the Velociraptor. Dinosaur created for having advanced intelligence against other creatures. Therefore, to keep the right contrast, this article presents the most common dinosaur in the Jurassic period, and is also considered as a one of the most "dumbest" - Stegosaurus.

Source:, Image Credit: EvaK

Among the bird-pelvis dinosaurs, one of the most characteristic species are undoubtedly Stegosaurus. In principle, stegosaurs represent a family of herbivorous dinosaurs with plates and spines on the back and tail. The peak of development of this species falls on the late jurassic around 140 million years ago. Few representatives of this species have survived to the Cretaceous period, although research is conducted to negate this assumption.

Stegosaurus from other dinosaurs can be recognized at first sight after two rows of bone processes, the function of which is not fully explained. It is unlikely that they served as defense or as armor, as was often the case with tyreophores, in particular ankylosaurs, because these appendages were only on the back, they did not protect the sides. He had a small narrow head with a tiny brain. The Stegosaurus was also not the best runner, which could have hampered his skirmishes with predators. On average, it reached a speed of 7km/h. However, he had a different way of defense, namely his center of gravity was in the area of ​​the hind legs, therefore he was able to do fatal blows with his tail, turning around his own axis.

The most famous of the Stegosaurus family is surprisingly obviously the Stegosaurus. He could reach up to 9 meters in length and he weighed 3.5 tons on average. The stegosaurus lived in a warm climate, because of its low set head it fed on low vegetation.

On the back, it had 17 bone plates that did not directly connected to the backbone. For this he had 4 spikes on the tail, which were used for defense. According to some theories, these bone growths served as a thermoregulatory function allowing them to store heat or a deterrent function, thanks to which the stegosaurus would look more dangerous than they were in reality. To a lesser extent, the mating function is also assumed.

Source:, Image Credit: EvaK

One of the distinguishing features of this dinosaur is its very small brain, whose weight reached 80 grams. It resembled a golf ball in size. Therefore, on the basis of the encephalization coefficient, it is defined as not very intelligent with a very underdeveloped brain in itself. This contributed to the popularisation of the view that all dinosaurs were slow and not very intelligent animals. Currently, such judgments are largely rejected.

One of the elements of the Stegosaurus's body structure, the function of which has not been explained so far, is the size of a chamber located near the hips through which the spinal cord passes. The hypotheses on it really sound intresting. The most popular is that in the secret chamber there was a second auxiliary brain.

If this was true, the Stegosaurus were not, not very intelligent at all and they were a real anatomical phenomenon in the world of living beings.

References:

[1]http://muzewol.pan.pl/Ewolucja/Ewolucja6.pdf
[2]http://www.encyklopedia.dinozaury.com/index.php?title=Stegosaurus
[3]http://dinozaury.org/rodzaje-dinozaurow/stegozaury/
[4]https://www.livescience.com/24184-stegosaurus-facts.html