The Stegosaurus is a large dinosaur that has large plates along it's back. It lived and roamed the Earth during the late Jurassic period. It has a weird stance and arched back and it has short front limbs. The spikes on it's tail are mostly used for defense, and the plates on it's back were also used for defense. It has a very small brain and neck compared to it's body. It's brain might be the smallest of all the dinosaurs. The Stegosaurus ate mostly just small, short leafy shrubs and plants. The Stegosaurus is 9 meters long in length, and 4 meters tall. They had tough skin, and it was very necessary because they lived right next to large meat eating dinosaurs like the Allosaurus and Ceratosaurus. The Stegosaurus has padding behind each toe for walking on the ground. The tail was always very off the ground, held high up by muscles. The Stegosaurus has a long skull, but it has no front teeth so it can't really chew the hard meat either. Instead it has a beak-like thing on the end of it's mouth that helps it tear off parts of the shrub. They still did grind up the food with teeth in the back of their mouth. It's brain case is very small compared to the rest of it's body. It's barely bigger than an average dog. The Stegosaurus weighed an average total weight of 4.5 metric tons, which is pretty heavy!