Miragaia longicollum: The Stegosaur with the Longest Neck

Miragaia longicollum, a unique stegosaur from Portugal whose incredibly long neck, far longer than most stegosaurs, set it apart from its plated relatives and gave it a surprising advantage when browsing for plants.

Long-necked stegosaur!

#Miragaia longicollum Mateus e.a. 2009 is, as the species name suggests, a long-necked stegosaur with 17 cervicals, more than most sauropods, even.

Skull, cervical, and the “front end” were discovered in Late Jurassic (~150 mya) rocks in Portugal. And thus began an interesting #Dacentrurus vs Miragaia vs #Alcovasaurus synonymy “battle.”

The challenge starts with the fact that Dacentrurus is known mostly from the back half, Miragaia from the front, and Alcova is, well...

The contention continues in large part because there are actually essentially no rules on what makes a species a new genus. It is up to the author and then one sees if others follow suit and agree. If you aren’t an expert in a taxon you tend to accept an expert’s work, unless there is a really strong argument against it.

However, experts often square off. Lumper vs Splitter. Regional affinities. Grudge match. Plain ol’ disagreement from grad school. They are usually civil debates hinging upon pedantries.

This “battle” was enhanced by the discovery of more specimens with overlapping elements. These didn’t settle it, they made them more entertaining instead :-). It all comes down to how one interprets many of the characters. And, I am hesitant to type it, who can martial more popularity at times.

You might be saying, “But, Dr. BC, there is a cladogram!” Yep, there usually is, and tis one of 10,000 most parsimonious trees, meaning the selected one has pruning and wrenching done on it. Repeatable? Yep! But, ask the authors to re-score the specimen and see if they end up with a 100% match. Now have someone else score it, say a student of theirs. Now have rivals score it. So many of the characters are surprisingly up for interpretation. It doesn’t appear that way from the outside, but sit with a matrix, some bones, and a few friends for an eye-opening experience :-).

A Miragaia by any other name is still amazing!

This cast is at the @sauriermuseumaathal

#Miragaia #Stegosaur #LongNeckDinosaur #DinosaurExhibit #JurassicLife #Paleontology #FossilDiscovery #DinosaurSkeleton #FossilCrates

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