Hesperosaurus

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iHesperosaurus
Fossil range: Late Jurassic

Hesperosaurus mjosi - artist Ken Carpenter, 2006

Extinct (fossil)

Scientific classification

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Sauropsida
Superorder:	Dinosauria
Order:	Ornithischia
Suborder:	Thyreophora
Infraorder:	Stegosauria
Family:	Stegosauridae
Genus:	Hesperosaurus Carpenter, Miles & Cloward, 2001

Species

H. mjosi

Hesperosaurus (meaning "western lizard", from Classical Greek, ησπερο-/hespero- "western" and σαυρος/saurus "lizard") was an 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.

[edit] Discovery and Species

It was described by Kenneth Carpenter in 2001. He gave it its name for its location in the western United States. A nearly complete skull and much of the skeleton was found.

Hesperosaurus Species

H. mjosi

[edit] References

Carpenter K, Miles CA, Cloward K (2001). “New Primitive Stegosaur from the Morrison Formation, Wyoming”, Carpenter, Kenneth(ed): The Armored Dinosaurs. Indiana University Press, 55–75. ISBN 0-253-33964-2.