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The stegosaurus (genus Stegosaurus) was a large herbivorous dinosaur which flourished in the Late Jurassic period. Its name is derived from Greek roots, and means roofed lizard.
The stegosaurus is one of the most popular dinosaurs in children's fiction, and one of the most easily identifiable, owing to the distinctive double row of kite-shaped plates along its back and four long spikes on its tail. The plates have blood vessels running through grooves in them.
It is often said that the stegosaurus had a "brain the size of a walnut". It is thought to have had a secondary nerve centre on the lower spinal cord (often misleadingly described as a "second brain") to control the legs and tail.
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