TAC - STEGONODUS

(Credit to  for discovering and publishing this new dinosaur.)

In the third manned expedition to Alayssia, I was accompanied by paleontologists Eric Bower, Robin Backstrand, and Bartholomew Michaelson.  During this we discovered a few new species I haven't documented yet.  Stegonodus is one of them.

Despite its similarities to the stegosaurs, Stegonodus is actually a nodosaur, a subgroup of ankylosaurs.  They do, however, use their thagomizers in the same way a stegosaur would, for defense.  They spend a lot of time bathing in mud to keep parasites at bay, and they will even eat mud to help digest food.

Only two predators will attack them: Maluvenator slashes at their legs and throat, while B. rex simply flips them over and rips their bellies open.  Unlike their larger, more aggressive cousin, Diablocephalus, Stegonodus is harmless to humans; I spent time with an adolescent and it was not provoked at all.