Stagonolepis Pronunciation

Fun Facts

• ✓Stagonolepis fossils were first described by the famous Swiss naturalist Louis Agassiz in 1844, more than a decade before many dinosaurs were scientifically named.
• ✓The armor plates of Stagonolepis were not just for show: each bony scute was made of bone that grew directly in the skin, similar in principle to the armor on a modern crocodile.
• ✓Stagonolepis lived during the Carnian to Norian stages of the Late Triassic, roughly 227 to 206 million years ago, meaning it shared its world with some of the very first true dinosaurs.
• ✓Fossils assigned to Stagonolepis have been found on three separate countries across Europe, including Scotland, Poland, and Germany, suggesting it was a widespread and successful animal.
• ✓Stagonolepis belongs to a group called aetosaurs, which were among the most common large herbivores of the Late Triassic and were wiped out in the end-Triassic mass extinction around 201 million years ago.