Dinosaurs A to Z
Stegosauridae

Mongolostegus exspectabilis

"Mongolian roof"

Generic stegosaur body-plan outline
You 1.8 m (5.9 ft) tall
Mongolostegus 5 m (16.4 ft) long
as long as 3 people standing fingertip to fingertip
generic stegosaur body plan, scaled to length — not a silhouette of Mongolostegus
Length
5 m (16.4 ft)
Period
Early Cretaceous (145–100 Mya)
Place
China · Mongolia
Food
Herbivore
Clade
Stegosauridae Dinosauria Ornithischia Thyreophora Stegosauria Stegosaurus and close relatives.

Mongolostegus (meaning “Mongolian roof”) is an extinct genus of stegosaurian dinosaurs from the Early Cretaceous (Aptian–Albian ages) Dzunbain Formation of Mongolia. The genus contains a single species, Mongolostegus exspectabilis, known from a fragmentary single specimen representing the first stegosaur named from Mongolia. It is one of the youngest known stegosaurs, along with Yanbeilong and an unnamed species from the Hekou Group of China. In contrast to these taxa, which are members of the late-diverging stegosaur subfamily Stegosaurinae, Mongolostegus may have affinities to more basal taxa such as the Huayangosauridae.

What we know

  • Named by Tumanova and Alifanov, 2018.
  • Fossils found in China and Mongolia.

What we guess

The reconstruction notes for Mongolostegus — soft tissue, color, behavior — haven't been written up yet. Only the recorded basics above are filled in so far.