stegosaurus

plural stegosauruses · plural stegosauri

1. Any of the clade †Stegosauria of quadruped ornithischian dinosaurs with dorsal plates and spikes, alive during the Jurassic and early Cretaceous periods.

   "You will observe that both the pterodactyl and the stegosaurus are Jurassic, and therefore of a great age in the order of life."

   1912, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Lost World […], London; New York, N.Y.: Hodder and Stoughton, →OCLC

   1 more example

   So you tell your friends about it, including the people who have no interest in birding and wouldn't know a Le Conte's sparrow from a stegosaurus.

   1988 April 8, Jerry Sullivan, “Field & Street”, in Chicago Reader

   Synonyms: stegosaur

2. Any of the genus †Stegosaurus of herbivorous four-legged armored dinosaurs from the Late Jurassic, characterized by the distinctive kite-shaped upright plates along their backs and spikes on their tails.