Alcovasaurus

What it was like

Alcovasaurus was a stegosaur with plates along its back and very long spikes on its tail, among the longest of any stegosaur. It is known from a partial skeleton.

Its bones were first described as a species of Stegosaurus. Later studies placed it closer to Dacentrurus and its European relatives, though its exact place is still debated.

Its world

It lived in the Late Jurassic in what is now the western United States, in the same rocks that hold Stegosaurus.

How it was found

Galton and Carpenter gave it its own genus in 2016. The original skeleton was later lost, so scientists now rely on old descriptions.