Miragaia
Name: Miragaia
(Named after the location of its discovery).
Phonetic: Mee-rah-guy-ah.
Named By: Oct�vio Mateus, Susannah C.R.
Maidment & Nicolai A. Christiansen - 2009.
Classification: Chordata, Reptilia, Dinosauria,
Ornithischia, Thereophora, Stegosauria, Stegosauridae,
Dacentrurinae.
Species: M. longicollum (type).
Diet: Herbivore.
Size: Estimated between 5.5 and 6 meters
long.
Known locations: Portugal - Sobral Formation.
Time period: Kimmeridgian to Tithonian of the
Jurassic.
Fossil representation: Partial skull, mainly
snout, and partial post cranial remains including cervical (neck)
vertebrae, forelimbs, ribs, pelvic elements and neck plates.
Further isolated remains have been attributed to the genus.
At
first glance you might be forgiven for thinking that Miragaia
is some
kind of hybrid between a stegosaur
and a sauropod.
Well in actuality
Miragaia is a stegosaur, although the long neck
and long forelimbs
make it quite different from classic examples such as Stegosaurus
and
Kentrosaurus.
The most likely cause for this different body morph
is that Miragaia specialised to feed upon taller
vegetation, and a
longer neck would not just increase reach but could cover a larger area
without the need for Miragaia to physically move
its body.
The
long neck was composed of at least seventeen vertebrae, some of which
appear to be specially positioned dorsal vertebrae that were carried
further forward. The vertebrae also seem to be more elongated than
other stegosaurids. Because the front limbs were almost as high as
the rear limbs, the overall posture of Miragaia
would be more
horizontally level to the ground. Most other stegosaurids had bodies
that sloped down to the ground so that their heads were better situated
for low browsing. The tail for Miragaia is still
unknown but is
usually reconstructed with a four spiked thagomizer like many other
stegosaurids possess.
Further reading
- A new long-necked ‘sauropod-mimic’ stegosaur and the evolution of the
plated dinosaurs. Octavio Mateus, Susannah C. R. Maidment and Nicolai
A. Christiansen - 2009.
- Dacentrurine stegosaurs (Dinosauria): A new specimen of Miragaia
longicollum from the Late Jurassic of Portugal resolves taxonomical
validity and shows the occurrence of the clade in North America. - PLOS
ONE. 14 (11): e0224263. - Francisco Costa & Oct�vio Mateus -
2019.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Random favourites
 |
 |
 |
 |