A mostly complete stegosaur with skin from Cretaceous north China (and a ceratopsian)

[Sim]

@Ikessauro A good possibility even if very rare. I mean there is that 2 headed polycephalic Hyphalosaurus specimen. All the more reason we need to wait for a publication or perhaps even more specimens to clear this up. I hope they give it a fun name since of its unique condition.

There's Nedoceratops and Tatankaceratops too, which might both be Triceratops specimens with a growth disorder.  I dislike Nedoceratops's name, so I can't say I'm keen on a repeat of that with this stegosaurian...

[Faelrin]

@Sim An alternative name could be something making note of its huge thagomizers.

[Samrukia]

@Ikessauro A good possibility even if very rare. I mean there is that 2 headed polycephalic Hyphalosaurus specimen. All the more reason we need to wait for a publication or perhaps even more specimens to clear this up. I hope they give it a fun name since of its unique condition.

There's Nedoceratops and Tatankaceratops too, which might both be Triceratops specimens with a growth disorder.  I dislike Nedoceratops's name, so I can't say I'm keen on a repeat of that with this stegosaurian...

Nedoceratops name makes fun sense to Russian speakers 😁

The "nedo" is the Russian prefix meaning "insufficient". It's something like if it was named Almostceratops

[DinoToyForum]

@Sim An alternative name could be something making note of its huge thagomizers.

Thagomizer sinensis.

[Halichoeres]

Hypothesis: dromaeosaurs pulled all the other plates off to use as frisbees.

And Compsognathus took the small ones for surf boards?

By far the most parsimonious explanation!

@Samrukia that's the meaning in Greek, interesting to see it preserved in Russian!

[ceratopsian]

Are you sure that Nedo comes from the Greek, @Halichoeres?  It was named by Ukrainsky in the 2000s and my understanding is that it's a Russian prefix. Certainly doesn't strike me as Greek.

[Halichoeres]

Are you sure that Nedo comes from the Greek, @Halichoeres?  It was named by Ukrainsky in the 2000s and my understanding is that it's a Russian prefix. Certainly doesn't strike me as Greek.

Ha ha, no I'm wildly wrong, thank you for pointing it out. I remembered having read that the meaning was something like 'insufficient horned face,' and because the rest of the name is Greek (as so many dinosaur names are) I assumed all of it was, which is obviously foolish. I had no recollection at all of who coined the name.

[andrewsaurus rex]

The one plate thing is really odd.  But you'd think there would at least be one impression of one other plate somewhere if they had been present in life.  Buy, maybe the animal died, started to decompose,  all the plates but one falling off and then a current of some kind came along and swept the other plates away, but before the final one fell off the animal was covered in sediment and the final plate preserved?  Perhaps detailed inspection of the remains will shed further light on the possibility of more plates being present.

Difficult to believe the species evolved to have only one......but there are a lot of oddball dinosaurs.

[Leyster]

L @Leyster What episode was this from? I totally forgot about that lol.

Idk, when it came out a friend linked to me that scene.

[Funk]

I would be surprised if the stegosaurian had only one plate in life.  What about if it died in water, and the current dislodged most of the plates?

I also notice this stegosaurian's plate looks like the plates of Wuerhosaurus which were claimed to be broken.  To me it seems more likely the plates of Wuerhosaurus aren't broken, which could be supported by this new stegosaurian.

Looks like it isn't fully prepared, that single plate is in a lower level than the surrounding rock, which indicates others could be below too.