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futurepaleontologist1
MemberCompsognathusJun-07-2013 10:53 PMEveryone knows about Stegosaurus's long, slender plates, but why did they exist? Were they simply a vestigal structure or, increadibly useful? Respond and state your facts!
Pity is for the living. Envy is for the dead.
-Mark Twain
6 Replies
Makaveli7
MemberCompsognathusJun-07-2013 11:27 PMThey were probably used for many things: Thermoregulation, attracting mates, scaring rivals/predators and for a little defense if predators tried to bite its back.
Future Team Raptor member
futurepaleontologist1
MemberCompsognathusJun-08-2013 2:58 AMI have a hard time seeing them as used for defense. They were pretty frail and chalky. All other points you make are valid though!
Pity is for the living. Envy is for the dead.
-Mark Twain
Dinosaur.Fanatic
MemberCompsognathusJun-08-2013 10:21 AMRight. It was the tail spikes that were used for defense, and they could do some serious damage. The plates were used for the tasks Makaveli7 mentioned.
"Either way, you probably won't get off this island alive."
--Alan Grant
x_paden_x
MemberCompsognathusJun-08-2013 1:54 PMWell they're not fully plates, they come from material that has bone in it, but they're not fully bone, Given they could be used for defence *so they're spine is some what protected form predators* I believe that they were used to help them, they'd act like solar panels and attach/gather some of the suns energy, Help warm the blood,*everybody likes to be warm :D*
OR something like that... They wouldn't have grown them for no reason... nature has shown this before you evolve these things for a reason... we need to find out what that reason is
Life cannot be contained, it breaks walls, crashes through barriers sometimes painfully, but uh... Life uh, finds a way
futurepaleontologist1
MemberCompsognathusJun-08-2013 6:32 PMRight. I think that this could also help prove that some species were cold blooded.
Pity is for the living. Envy is for the dead.
-Mark Twain
Rex Fan 684
MemberCompsognathusJun-08-2013 6:56 PMI think they were used for thermo-regulation. They could catch the suns rays or a cool breeze. They probably were full of blood. This meant they could have been for display as well. They were not for defense in the sense that they kept a predator from biting them. Say an Allosaurus bites one and breaks it. It would be like a big, blood filled cookie for him. The only way they could have been for defense is if they could change colors. That could frighten off some predators. Kind of like in Walking With Dinosaurs.
"Men like me don't start the wars. We just die in them. We've always died in them, and we always will. We don't expect any praise for it, no parades. No one knows our names."
―Alpha-98
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