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> Allosaurus meets Stegosaurus

Allosaurus meets Stegosaurus

author: Walter B. Myers/Novapix

reference: t-din02-00001

Image Size 300 DPI: 34 * 25 cm

An Allosaurus stumbles upon a grazing Stegosaurus in a Jurassic Redwood forest. While it's probable that the 30 foot, 2 ton Allosaurus preyed upon large herbivores, I doubt that one would have risked a direct confrontation with an adult Stegosaurus, which could weigh as much as 5 tons and wields a powerful tail tipped with 3-foot spikes. Adding to its survivability, Stegosaurus' front legs may have been strong enough to allow it to pivot and swing its entire backside around to ward off an assault. In addition to Redwoods and varieties of fern, this Jurassic-period forest includes the now extinct Pachypteris, an arboreal plant that grew to a height of 10 feet and populated every major continent 160 million years ago (in this image, the Stegosaurus is stepping back onto a Pachypteris, obliging a much smaller lizard to abandon its roost).

Keywords for this photo:

ALLOSAURUS - ANIMAL - DINOSAUR - EARTH - FAUNA - FOREST - HISTORY OF EARTH - ILLUSTRATION - JURASSIC - MESOZOIC - ORNITHISCHIA - PLANT - SEQUOIA - STEGOSAURUS - THEROPOD - TREE -