How tough was Stegosaurus really?

[Stegotyranno420]

Stegosaurus is my favorite dinosaur. As a kid, i thought it was a powerful beast. It was able to hook gigantic allosaurs, and wrestle ceratosaurs to the ground, and break and slice the skulls and legs of megalosaurs. Is the true. Or is stegosaurus the absoulute brainless weakling R/Ankmemes says it is.


Also, if you got some kind of biased/innacurate propoganda or a joke respone, please leave


EDIT: no it wasnt just reddit, it was the whole internet

[John]

I hate to admit this since Ceratosaurus is my favorite,but a healthy adult Stegosaurus stenops at around 21 feet long would have been too much for it or even Allosaurus or Torvosaurus to take on.Things would have been even worse for the predators against the 30 foot S, ungulatus...

In short,"absolute brainless weakling" is not how I would ever describe Stegosaurus...

[PumperKrickel]

Stegosaurus is my favorite dinosaur. As a kid, i thought it was a powerful beast. It was able to hook gigantic allosaurs, and wrestle ceratosaurs to the ground, and break and slice the skulls and legs of megalosaurs. Is the true. Or is stegosaurus the absoulute brainless weakling R/Ankmemes says it is.

Real animals are far more nuanced than that. An elephant could absolutely demolish a lion, but one would rarely think of it as a savage death-machine. Most predators probably avoided stegosaurs, since even a minor slash could easily turn lethal due to infections.

Also, the less time one spends on reddit, the better.

[Sim]

An adult Stegosaurus would have been dangerous.  It's known a stegosaur caused the death of an allosaur: https://phys.org/news/2014-10-kung-fu-stegosaur.html

[Stegotyranno420]

thats great to hear, but when compared to say triceratops and ankylosaurus, everyone then says it will easily lose to either one. But i seriously doubt it. Stegosaurus is built of like a small necked ornithopod/sauropod hybrid, with spines(i couldnt find a better explaination)

[Halichoeres]

If I were trying to domesticate a dinosaur, it wouldn't be my first choice.

[Stegotyranno420]

If I were trying to domesticate a dinosaur, it wouldn't be my first choice.

well that opens a new discussion, what dinosaur should/can be domesticated

[Brocc21]

Or is stegosaurus the absoulute brainless weakling R/Ankmemes says it is.

Word of advice. Never take something said on a meme subreddit seriously. Or never take anything on reddit seriously.

[stargatedalek]

If I were trying to domesticate a dinosaur, it wouldn't be my first choice.

well that opens a new discussion, what dinosaur should/can be domesticated

Ironically, Tyrannosaurs may have been one of the best candidates realistically, Albertosaurines in particular. Their extremely large newborns (based on bones from unborn embryos, no preserved eggs known) indicate they put a lot of energy into individual young and so probably raised them closely for years. Coupled with the evidence of play behaviour in Tyrannosaurus, and they may have been a lot more social than traditionally assumed.

Raphus/dodo would be my second bet, given how well other pigeons have done in captivity.

[HD-man]

If I were trying to domesticate a dinosaur, it wouldn't be my first choice.

well that opens a new discussion, what dinosaur should/can be domesticated

http://tetzoo.com/blog/2018/8/16/could-we-domesticate-non-bird-dinosaurs

[CityRaptor]

Ironically, Tyrannosaurs may have been one of the best candidates realistically, Albertosaurines in particular. Their extremely large newborns (based on bones from unborn embryos, no preserved eggs known) indicate they put a lot of energy into individual young and so probably raised them closely for years. Coupled with the evidence of play behaviour in Tyrannosaurus, and they may have been a lot more social than traditionally assumed.

Actually thought of that scenario myself. Although I came to the conclusion that the domesticated version would probably still not be considered a pet, being rather used to guard and protect herds and important stuff since obviously an animal of that size would require a lot of food and space to roam. And may play rough. Okay, some rich folks would keep them as pets, but the general population not so much.

[Newt]

If your Stegosaurus is too tough, you need to reduce the heat and increase the cooking time. Remember, "low and slow" with indirect heat is the key to moist, tender, fall-off-the-thagomizer Stegosaurus!


Wait, what are we talking about?

[Stegotyranno420]

If your Stegosaurus is too tough, you need to reduce the heat and increase the cooking time. Remember, "low and slow" with indirect heat is the key to moist, tender, fall-off-the-thagomizer Stegosaurus!


Wait, what are we talking about?

I have no idea

Spoiler

I originally asked how powerful was stegosaurus in terms of fighting and endurance, since lots of folks on the internet were saying things like "stegosaurus doesnt stand a chance against ankylosaurus or triceratops, which i doubted. Then Haliocheres said that stegosaurus would be a dinosaur he wouldn' t try to domesticate, which opened up the question of what dinosaurs should/can be domesticated

[close]

[stargatedalek]

While very capable, Stegosaurus was notably smaller than Triceratops (prorsus anyway), and also less built for intraspecific combat. Triceratops was not only a bulkier animal, but one adapted to fight other herbivores, while Stegosaurus was likely more reliant on using its displays to intimidate potential threats and was equipped with weaponry to deter predators, not overpower rivals in an all out brawl. And Ankylosaurus is kind of cheating to pit against another herbivore, since it's specialized armor gives it an unfair advantage in these unrealistic death battle scenarios.

Meaning ultimately, yes, I would concur Stegosaurus would loose a fight to Triceratops or Ankylosaurus. However I would also expect Stegosaurus to prove more likely to survive an encounter with a greater range of predators, given the versatility the highly mobile tail offers.

[ITdactyl]

Wait, you were taking a meme subreddit's opinion on possible paleoecology/behavior of stegosaurus seriously?  This is not an insult though. I can see a lot of threads there with a "which is better, stegosaurus or ankylosaurus" theme. I hope those "debates" lead to those redditors looking for better information.

Admittedly I like threads like these, because they make me wonder how real intraspecific dinosaur interactions actually went.  We have a glut of pop culture depictions of dinosaur fights that the general public seem to take as gospel. The perpetually charging triceratops. Sauropods wielding their tails with an aim that rivals a human whipcracker. Theropods that know how to break necks and spines. And of course, ankylosaurs and stegosaurs that brandish their tails like human martial artists/weapon masters.
But considering the sheer number of reddit threads, yahoo answers, google querries etc. about this subject, I guess we really like ranking animals.

Real animals are far more nuanced than that. An elephant could absolutely demolish a lion, but one would rarely think of it as a savage death-machine.

African and South asian citizens  who live with elephants would probably disagree with this statement. Same for those unlucky buffalo, hippo, rhino, domestic cattle, donkeys that didn't move away quickly enough when a matriarchal herd arrived at a watering hole... or unluckily encountered a bull in musth.  I do get the point though, elephants are extremely dangerous - but they do not actively seek to kill other herbivores or humans.

I rambled. Sorry.
I wonder if future research will be able to tell if stegosaurus was hyper-aggressive; lashing its tail at every perceived threat... or if it was a passive herbivore; only swinging its thagomizer as a last resort.

[Stegotyranno420]

@ITdactyl No it wasnt just reddit, it was pretty much the whole internet

and also as a boy who once interacted with elephants, and comes from a country where the majority of folks repsect/worship elephants, they are like that one peacful guy who protects everyone, but when he is mad, he will beat the living crap fecal matter out of you.


@stargatedalek  so basically you are saying that its like a rock-paper-scissors cycle(not perfectly). Rock is triceratops, paper is Large theropods, and scissors is stegosaurus, as based on their game counterparts, have a higher likelyness (for example a t rex is more likely to lose to a stegosaurus than a triceratops)

also i heard that stegosaurus, even without armour, was extremley muscular. Is this true?

[stargatedalek]

@stargatedalek  so basically you are saying that its like a rock-paper-scissors cycle(not perfectly). Rock is triceratops, paper is Large theropods, and scissors is stegosaurus, as based on their game counterparts, have a higher likelyness (for example a t rex is more likely to lose to a stegosaurus than a triceratops)

Essentially.

[Halichoeres]

If your Stegosaurus is too tough, you need to reduce the heat and increase the cooking time. Remember, "low and slow" with indirect heat is the key to moist, tender, fall-off-the-thagomizer Stegosaurus!


Wait, what are we talking about?

Personally I prefer the stegosaur brisket. I find that, while the thagomizer looks cool, it's a lot of effort for the amount of meat you get.

[Newt]

Personally I prefer the stegosaur brisket. I find that, while the thagomizer looks cool, it's a lot of effort for the amount of meat you get.

Where I come from, we use every part of the stegosaur but the grunt. Besides, the thagomizer really absorbs a lot of that classic Neocalamites-smoke flavor.

[WarrenJB]

Personally, I'd think a discussion measuring any animal's worth by 'how good it beats up them other animals' can be safely ignored, Reddit or no.

Ironically, Tyrannosaurs may have been one of the best candidates realistically, Albertosaurines in particular. Their extremely large newborns (based on bones from unborn embryos, no preserved eggs known) indicate they put a lot of energy into individual young and so probably raised them closely for years. Coupled with the evidence of play behaviour in Tyrannosaurus, and they may have been a lot more social than traditionally assumed.

When it comes to predators I'd veer in favour of those that could be physically subdued by a single human, at adult size, if needs be. Wolf sized is plenty, thank you.

How much meat would you get on a rhabdodont?