stegosaur

noun

stego·​saur ˈste-gə-ˌsȯr How to pronounce stegosaur (audio)
: any of a suborder (Stegosauria) of quadrupedal ornithischian herbivorous dinosaurs chiefly of the Jurassic with strongly developed dorsal plates and spikes

Examples of stegosaur in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web New research using supercomputers to simulate moon-on-moon violence suggests that Saturn’s rings formed when two ancient moons collided around the time that stegosaurs roamed the Earth. WIRED, 24 Dec. 2023 The dinosaur wasn’t an ankylosaur or a stegosaur, but might have been close to the point where both groups split from each other—offering researchers a way to put a timer on when these dinosaur lineages started to get their distinctive styles and behaviors. Riley Black, Smithsonian Magazine, 31 May 2022 Bashanosaurus is just the latest stegosaur discovery at the Shaximiao Formation, something that may suggest these dinosaurs originated in Asia, said study coauthor Ning Li, a researcher at the Chongqing Laboratory of Geoheritage Protection and Research. Ashley Strickland, CNN, 3 Mar. 2022 This stegosaur, a mix of real and cast bones, is on display at Utah State University Eastern’s Prehistoric Museum in Price, Utah. Laura Poppick, Discover Magazine, 30 Aug. 2019 And paleontologists have found the oldest stegosaur in Africa, named Adratiklit boulahfa, in the same deposits, indicating that both stegosaurs and ankylosaurs were living in the same places long before the days of Stegosaurus. Riley Black, Smithsonian Magazine, 31 May 2022 In another, a T. rex lunges at the neck of a stegosaur. Kent Russell, Harper’s Magazine , 25 May 2022 Maidment was part of a team that discovered Adratiklit boulahfa, a 168 million-year-old stegosaur fossil found in Morocco in 2019. Ashley Strickland, CNN, 3 Mar. 2022 For the first time, researchers traced dinosaur footprints along the island's northeastern coast and discovered that stegosaurs were part of this community. Ashley Strickland, CNN, 11 Mar. 2020

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'stegosaur.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

Etymology

New Latin Stegosauria, from Stegosaurus

First Known Use

1897, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of stegosaur was in 1897

Dictionary Entries Near stegosaur

Cite this Entry

“Stegosaur.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/stegosaur. Accessed 19 Mar. 2024.

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