Hesperosaurus

Taxobox|
name = "Hesperosaurus"
fossil_range = Late Jurassic


image_caption = "Hesperosaurus mjosi" - artist Ken Carpenter, 2006
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Chordata
classis = Sauropsida
superordo = Dinosauria
ordo = Ornithischia
subordo = Thyreophora
infraordo = Stegosauria
familia = Stegosauridae
genus = "Hesperosaurus"
genus_authority = Carpenter, Miles & Cloward, 2001
subdivision_ranks = Species
subdivision = "H. mjosi"

"Hesperosaurus" (meaning "western lizard", from Classical Greek, έσπερο-/hespero- "western" and σαυρος/saurus "lizard") was a herbivorous dinosaur from the Kimmeridgian to Tithonian epochs of the Jurassic period (approximately 150 million years ago), whose fossils are found in the state of Wyoming in the United States of America. It is from an older part of the Morrison Formation, and so a little older than other Morrison Stegosaurs.

"Hesperosaurus" was a type of stegosaurid, having alternating plates on its back and four spikes on its tail. The plates on its back were not as tall, but were longer, than in its cousin "Stegosaurus". It had a shorter, broader skull than "Stegosaurus" and appears most closely related to "Dacentrurus".

Discovery and species

It was described in 2001 by Kenneth Carpenter, who took the name for its location in the western United States. A nearly complete skull and much of the skeleton was found. The only species known is "Hesperosaurus mjosi"

References

*

External links

* [http://www.users.qwest.net/~jstweet1/stegosauria.htm Page on stegosaurs, including "Hesperosaurus"]