stegosaur

views updated May 21 2018

steg·o·saur / ˈstegəˌsôr/ (also stegosaurus / ˌstegəˈsôrəs/ ) • n. a small-headed quadrupedal herbivorous dinosaur (Stegosaurus and other genera, order Ornithischia) of the Jurassic and early Cretaceous periods, with a double row of large bony plates or spines along the back. ORIGIN: modern Latin, from Greek stegē ‘covering’ + sauros ‘lizard.’