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New stegosaur is quite a stretch

Fossil find’s long neck reveals unexpected anatomical diversity

By Sid Perkins

- More than 2 years ago

Paleontologists have unearthed the fossils of a stegosaur unlike any previously discovered — one that would have had a long neck like a sauropod in addition to stegosaurs’ trademark dorsal plates and tail spikes.

LONG NECK Miragaia longicollum has 17 neck vertebrae, giving this species a proportionally much longer neck than its stegosaur kin (fossils at top; reconstruction shown with a human holding a 2-meter-long rod for scale at bottom).