Printable sheet
A sweet stegosaurus with palm trees, two volcanoes and a flying reptile overhead. Get the free PDF of this chunky, kid-friendly page and start coloring.
Printable sheet
Free for personal and educational use
Download PDFPrintSmiling stegosaurus with plates along its back, two palm trees, two volcanoes, plants and a flying reptile.
Color each plate differently for a rainbow back.
Count the plates and write the number on your page.
The name stegosaurus means roofed lizard.
A stegosaurus with palm trees makes a fun picture, and it also brings us to one of the coolest dinosaur mysteries. This animal had two rows of big, bony plates running down its back. Even today, scientists are not sure exactly what they were for.
At first, people thought the plates were armor. But they left the sides of the body open, so they would not have protected it very well. Then scientists looked inside the plates and found tiny channels where blood could flow.
That gave them new ideas. Maybe the plates worked like a radiator in a car, helping the dinosaur warm up in the sun or cool down in the breeze. Maybe they helped stegosaurus spot others of its own kind, the way bright feathers help birds. They could have been colorful, but we can't tell, because color almost never lasts in fossils.
Stegosaurus lived about 150 million years ago. It was about as long as a school bus, and it ate low plants with a mouth shaped like a beak. It walked slowly with its head near the ground. Many of the best fossils come from places like Colorado and Wyoming, so this dinosaur once roamed right here in the United States!
The Fossil Lost in the WarDinosaurs · Hard
A Rare and Elegant Plant EaterDinosaurs · Medium
Myths and Facts About a Crested DinosaurDinosaurs · Medium
Why Sauropods Grew So HugeDinosaurs · Medium
A Prehistoric Trumpet by the WaterDinosaurs · Medium
Two Hunters on the RunDinosaurs · Medium
A Hunter in the Dense LeavesDinosaurs · Hard
King of the Tyrant LizardsDinosaurs · Medium