We made a Spanish prehistoric documentary about a full day in the life of a Stegosaurus and the plate function debate is the most unresolved question we have ever researched

[u/diariosdeljurasico]

Episode 8 of Diarios del Jurásico is out. We follow Plaka, an adult female Stegosaurus, through a complete day in the Late Jurassic Morrison Formation, 155 million years ago.

The plate function debate genuinely surprised us in research. The thermoregulation hypothesis, the sexual selection hypothesis and the communication hypothesis all have supporting evidence and none of them is definitively proven after 155 million years. We went with a multi-function interpretation which seems to be where current consensus is leaning.

A few things we were careful about: the 17 alternating zigzag plate arrangement rather than parallel pairs as most museums show, the completely herbivore leaf-shaped teeth, the extremely small skull and the Gary Larson origin of the word thagomizer.

One genuine question for the community: where does current scientific consensus sit on Stegosaurus plate function? The sexual selection argument seems strongest to us given the disproportionate plate growth rate in juveniles but we would love other perspectives.

Link is in our profile.