First Euro-Stegosaur Found

A Stegosaurus fossil has been found in Portugal, reported Live Science.  Previously this species with its spiked tail and prominent rows of plates on its back was only known from North America.  A tooth, some leg bones and part of the backbone have been unearthed.  So far, the fossil looks indistinguishable from its North American cousins.  The only other North American dinosaur found in Europe is Allosaurus.

Scientists infer land bridges at certain times, but admit that much is unknown: “While the similarity bolsters the land-bridge case, it provides no information on the distribution and duration of those bridges.”  Creationists suspect that much of the world’s land mass was connected before the Flood.  Every data point is like a puzzle piece for a completed picture hidden from view.  No one knows how many pieces there are but we probably have only a small fraction.  Before this find, it was easy to argue on lack of evidence that Stegosaurus was limited to the North American continent.  One piece of evidence can blow that idea out of the running.  The more pieces the better, but one should not expect that a picture in the mind’s eye is free of presuppositions.