Dinosaur fossils & 3D skeletons › Stegosaurus
Stegosaurus Fossil & 3D Skeleton
Stegosaurus stenops
- Age
- Jurassic, about 148.6 million years ago
- Found in
- United States
- Length
- 5.9 m
- Height
- 2.6 m
- Estimated mass
- about 2.1 t
- Group
- Stegosaurs
How this 3D skeleton was made
64% of bone shapes (171 of 268) were built from photos or figures of this species' own fossils; the rest are 88 borrowed from close relatives and 9 estimated.
From this species 171Borrowed from relatives 88Estimated 9
Bones known from fossils
267 of 268 bones are known from fossils. 1 are missing and filled in.
Known 267Filled in 1No record 0
Tap a bone on the 3D page to see where each bone shape came from.
Sources
- 3D Skeleton: Created on this site. Bone shapes were traced from outlines in photographic views (such as lateral and anterior) of the nearly complete specimen "Sophie" (NHMUK PV R36730), and scaled according to the measurement tables and scale bars in the same paper (Maidment et al. 2015 PLOS ONE, CC BY 4.0). Because the paper describing the skull bones has not yet been published, the skull shape was taken from a lateral illustration of the type specimen USNM 4934 (Gilmore 1914, public domain) and scaled to Sophie's skull length of 345 mm. The intervertebral spacing and the placement of the 19 plates and 4 spikes (with limb poses altered to a walking gait under "Pose (2026-09-30)" below) were aligned to a 3D laser scan of Sophie's mounted skeleton (Dempsey et al. 2025 Biol Rev, CC BY 4.0). Bones not preserved in this specimen (such as bones at the base of the tail and the hands) were borrowed from nearby bones or estimated (displayed upon touching the bone). Pose (2026-09-30): Referencing the foot placement in Kirkland et al. 2013 PLOS ONE Fig. 33A (Europelta), we estimated a pose mid-stride with the neck and tail turned in opposite directions. Stride length, joint angles, neck and head orientation, and lateral tail swing are estimates tailored to this model for display, not a reconstruction of measured locomotion or speed for this species. Fine joint angle adjustments to maintain ground contact and skeletal articulation are also estimated. An adjustment of a few centimeters to the shoulder girdle to align shoulder articulation without moving the weight-bearing hand is also an estimate on the model. Rather than a walking diagram of this exact species, the bone orientations were adapted from a diagram of a relative sharing the same gait.
- Bones found: Bones known from fossils of Stegosaurus stenops (Maidment et al. 2015, Gilmore 1914). Sophie is a specimen with nearly the entire skeleton preserved. Only Plate 14 lacks any fossil with a recognizable shape in this or other specimens, so it is an imagined reconstruction matched to the mounted cast.
More fossils & 3D skeletons
TyrannosaurusTriceratopsMosasaurusSpinosaurusPteranodonBrachiosaurusGiganotosaurusArchaeopteryxAnkylosaurusTherizinosaurusAllosaurusBaryonyxVelociraptorDeinonychusParasaurolophusPachycephalosaurusCarnotaurusQuetzalcoatlusDeinosuchusYutyrannusBrontosaurusOviraptorCeratosaurusIguanodonPlesiosaurusArgentinosaurusDiplodocusIchthyosaurusDilophosaurusFutabasaurusDimetrodonFukuiraptorSarcosuchusElasmosaurusEdmontosaurusFukuisaurusKamuysaurusMicroraptorCompsognathusApatosaurusRhamphorhynchusMamenchisaurusDeinocheirusLiopleurodonKronosaurusGallimimusProtoceratopsEoraptorHeterodontosaurus