Miragaia
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
| phylum | Chordata | Miragaia (named after Miragaia, the parish in Portugal and geologic unit where its remains were found) is a genus of stegosaurid dinosaur. Its fossils have been found in Upper Jurassic rocks in Portugal. The most notable feature of Miragaia is its long neck, which was composed of at least 17 vertebrae. This represents the culmination of a trend of longer necks seen in stegosaurians. Additionally, Miragaia had more neck vertebrae than most sauropods, dinosaurs known for their long necks, which contrasts with the traditional view of stegosaurians as low browsers with short necks. Some scientists consider the name "Miragaia" to be a synonym of the extremely similar but less completely known Dacentrurus. Like Dacentrurus, older depictions of Miragaia often show it with shoulder spikes, but scientists now consider this unlikely.
For more information, visit the Wikipedia entry. Get back to Thyreophora |
| clade | Dinosauria | |
| order | Ornithischia | |
| Infraorder | Thyreophora | |
| family | Stegosauridae | |
| genus | Miragaia | |
| species | M. longicollum | |
| Temporal range | Late Jurassic |
