| SciShow News Watch on The authors said the feathers belonged to a type of non-flying dinosaur. (Sauropods, Ceratopsians.) Other ornithischians included Camptosaurus, Gargoyleosaurus, Dryosaurus, Othnielosaurus and Drinker. [32][33], Most of the information known about Stegosaurus comes from the remains of mature animals; more recently, though, juvenile remains of Stegosaurus have been found. [40], Despite the animal's overall size, the braincase of Stegosaurus was small, being no larger than that of a dog. . Galton noted that the plates in S. stenops have been found articulated in two staggered rows, rather than paired. [76], Another possible function of the plates is they may have helped to control the body temperature of the animal,[76] in a similar way to the sails of the pelycosaurs Dimetrodon and Edaphosaurus (and modern elephant and rabbit ears). If its filaments are related to the proto-feathers of the theropods (which is possible but not. [35], The long and narrow skull was small in proportion to the body. Why were cheeks so important? Spinosaurus was a giant meat-eating dinosaur that grew to lengths of 18 m (60 ft.). The Stegosaurus is another famous dinosaur species that has captivated our imagination. Tooth wear and possible jaw action of. [97], The Morrison Formation is interpreted as a semiarid environment with distinct wet and dry seasons, and flat floodplains. The pterosaurs, a closely related but separate group of "ruling reptiles" (or archosaurs, a group that, incidentally, also includes birds and crocodiles ), also had feathers. Animal fossils discovered include bivalves, snails, ray-finned fishes, frogs, salamanders, turtles like Glyptops, sphenodonts, lizards, terrestrial and aquatic crocodylomorphs like Hoplosuchus, several species of pterosaurs such as Harpactognathus and Mesadactylus, numerous dinosaur species, and early mammals such as docodonts (like Docodon), multituberculates, symmetrodonts, and triconodonts. Stegosaurus defended itself by attacking its enemies with its spiked tail.Allosaurus bones have been found with holes made by Stegosaurus tail spikes.. It is likely that their life consisted pretty much of slowly searching for food, and defending themselves from predators. "Stegosaurus!" "Tyrannosaurus!" The six of us Morphed, and appeared where Hatchasaurus is. They had. This mount was created under the direction of Charles Gilmore at the U.S. National Museum of Natural History. The Stegosaurus flaunted an array of plates and spikes. HAO, B., PENG, G., QIN, G., YE, Y., & JIANG, S. (2018). In it, the researchers claimed that Tyrannosaurus and its relatives, collectively known as Tyrannosaurids, did not have feathers. There were three different species of Stegosaurus, but all were relatively similar looking. A well-preserved Stegosaurus braincase allowed Othniel Charles Marsh to obtain, in the 1880s, a cast of the brain cavity or endocast of the animal, which gave an indication of the brain size. What might the plates of Stegosaurus have been used for. [9][11] This first reconstruction, of S. ungulatus with missing parts filled in from S. stenops, was published by Marsh in 1891. Stegosauria: a historical review of the body fossil record and phylogenetic relationships. [71][40] Tracks discovered by Matthew Mossbrucker (Morrison Natural History Museum, Colorado) suggest that Stegosaurus lived and traveled in multiple-age herds. In 1914, Charles Gilmore argued against Lull's interpretation, noting that several specimens of S. stenops, including the now-completely prepared holotype, preserved the plates in alternating rows near the peak of the back, and that there was no evidence of the plates having shifted relative to the body during fossilization. Dinosaurs did have feathers ancestrally but most groups lost them. Based on the results of the study, it was revealed that the subadult Stegosaurus specimen had a bite similar in strength to that of modern herbivorous mammals, in particular, cattle and sheep. The stegosaurus has a small head and a tiny brain. Sophie was first discovered by Bob Simon in 2003 at the Red Canyon Quarry near Shell, Wyoming and was excavated by crews from the Swiss Sauriermuseum in 2004. The model was moved to the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History (now the Arts and Industries Building) in Washington, D.C. along with other prehistory displays, and to the current National Museum of Natural History building in 1911. [26][25][24] The Stegosaurus skeletons have been mounted alongside an Allosaurus skeleton collected in Moffat County, Colorado originally in 1979. The discovery of 150-million-year-old fossils in Siberia. 24-26 feet. One species, Stegosaurus ungulatus, is one of the largest known of all the stegosaurians, reaching 7 metres (23ft) in length and 3.8 metric tons (4.2 short tons) in body mass, and some specimens indicate an even larger body size. One skeleton collected at the site known as "Victoria" is very well preserved including many of the vertebrae preserved in semi-articulation and next to an Allosaurus skeleton found nicknamed "Big Al II". It was a composite of several skeletons, primarily USNM 6531, with proportions designed to closely follow the S. stenops type specimen, which had been on display in relief nearby since 1918. This hypothesis proposes that the plates acted as radiators, releasing body heat to a cooler ambient environment; conversely, the plates could also have collected heat by being faced toward the sun like living solar panels. Ceratosaurus and Stegosaurus dinosaurs: Warm-blooded. Triceratops quite likely did have some sort of feathers, as many of its ancestors have been found to have them. [77] Buffrnil, et al. Fossils of the genus have been found in the western United States and in Portugal, where they are found in Kimmeridgian- to Tithonian-aged strata, dating to between 155 and 145million years ago. It would be blatantly impossible to own one as a pet, even in theory. 3. Stegosaurus remains were first identified during the "Bone Wars" by Othniel Charles Marsh at Dinosaur Ridge National Landmark. [103], Early skeletal mounts and plate interpretation. Scant evidence in the fossil record has never been definitive - until now, scientists say. (2007). [26] The hind feet each had three short toes, while each fore foot had five toes; only the inner two toes had a blunt hoof. An important discovery came in 1937 again at Garden Park by a high school teacher named Frank Kessler in while leading a nature hike. Now!" Jason shouted, and our Dinozords appeared. Stegosaur track assemblage from Xinjiang, China, featuring the smallest known stegosaur record. a. a keel bone (wishbone) c. a long tail b. teeth d. claw-bearing fingers . Much of their notoriety comes from their odd, and intriguing, appearance. The fact that an animal weighing over 4.5metric tons (5short tons) could have a brain of no more than 80g (2.8oz) contributed to the popular old idea that all dinosaurs were unintelligent, an idea now largely rejected. That's when Stegosaurus was a species of dinosaur that walked around the Earth. They were large, heavily built, herbivorous quadrupeds with rounded backs, short fore limbs, long hind limbs, and tails held high in the air. It was initially mounted with paired plates set wide, above the base of the ribs, but was remounted in 1924 with two staggered rows of plates along the midline of the back. Knight would go on to paint a stegosaur with a staggered double plate row in 1927 for the Field Museum of Natural History, and was followed by Rudolph F. Zallinger, who painted Stegosaurus this way in his "Age of Reptiles" mural at the Peabody Museum in 1947. Stegosaurus wasn't related to modern birds, so it doesn't make sense to have feathers. The endocast showed the brain was indeed very small, the smallest proportionally of all dinosaur endocasts then known. Which basic group of dinosaur is this . That's why its name in Greek means "roof lizard.". These middle Triassic reptiles, dating from about 230 million years ago, included such important genera as Eoraptor, Herrerasaurus, and Staurikosaurus; as far as paleontologists can tell, these were the first true dinosaurs, only recently evolved from their archosaur predecessors. Did they have feathers too? [12] This historically significant specimen was re-mounted ahead of the opening of the new Peabody Museum building in 1925. There is a small bump on the back of the blade, that would have served as the base of the triceps muscle. Stegosaurus, (genus Stegosaurus), one of the various plated dinosaurs (Stegosauria) of the Late Jurassic Period (159 million to 144 million years ago) recognizable by its spiked tail and series of large triangular bony plates along the back. According to a recent study, they may have evolved in another group. The presence of a beak extended along much of the jaws may have precluded the presence of cheeks in these species. [12] The aging mount was dismantled in 2003 and replaced with a cast in an updated pose in 2004. The model was based on Knight's latest miniature with the double row of staggered plates,[12] and was exhibited in the United States Government Building at the exposition in St. Louis before being relocated to Portland, Oregon for the Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition in 1905. [74] Nevertheless, others have continued to support a defensive function. [45], Like the spikes and shields of ankylosaurs, the bony plates and spines of stegosaurians evolved from the low-keeled osteoderms characteristic of basal thyreophorans. Did not have to worry about predation based on their size as long as they were adults and healthy. So did dinosaurs have big outer ears? [5], On the other side of the Bone Wars, Edward Drinker Cope named Hypsirhophus discurus as another stegosaurian based on fragmentary fossils from Cope's Quarry 3 near the "Cope's Nipple" site in Garden Park, Colorado in 1878. Stegosaurus ungulatus by the describers. Found in: USA. [75] Mobility of the plates, however, has been disputed by other paleontologists. 1. This suggests that the different Stegosaurus species were relatively widespread. Spinosaurus had a huge sail on its back. not only the fused up-down motion to which stegosaur jaws were likely limited). Did T Rexes Have Feather? They also used hind legs to feed on trees or detect danger. . Paleontology and Geology of the Upper Jurassic Morrison Formation. . They do estimate that they fed on a number of different plant types, including ferns, moss, fruits, cycads, conifers, and horsetails. [79], The thermoregulation hypothesis has been seriously questioned, since other stegosaurs such as Kentrosaurus, had more low surface area spikes than plates, implying that cooling was not important enough to require specialized structural formations such as plates. [2], The greatest Stegosaurus discovery came in 1885 with the discovery of a nearly complete, articulated skeleton of a subadult that included previously undiscovered elements like a complete skull, throat ossicles, and articulated plates. "Powered up . Stegosaurus (/ s t s r s /; lit. They found other fossils in Europe, China, Africa, and India. The largest species could grow nearly 30 ft. long and weigh up to 7 metric tons. In his article about the new mount for the museum's journal, Barnum Brown described (and disputed) the popular misconception that the Stegosaurus had a "second brain" in its hips. Twice! . Feathers are thought to have evolved from. 71-69 mya. . That means they were made on day six of creation (Genesis 1:24 . [2][56] In 2015, Maidment et al. [86] It also may function as a balance organ, or reservoir of compounds to support the nervous system. 23. The first known skeletons were fragmentary and the bones were scattered, and it would be many years before the true appearance of these animals, including their posture and plate arrangement, became well understood. A feathered dinosaur is any species of dinosaur possessing feathers. [8], Arthur Lakes made another discovery later in 1879 at Como Bluff in Albany County, Wyoming, the site also dating to the Upper Jurassic of the Morrison Formation, when he found several large Stegosaurus fossils in August of that year. Vegetation varied from river-lining forests of conifers, tree ferns, and ferns (gallery forests), to fern savannas with occasional trees such as the Araucaria-like conifer Brachyphyllum. 'roof-lizard') is a genus of herbivorous, four-legged, armored dinosaur from the Late Jurassic, characterized by the distinctive kite-shaped upright plates along their backs and spikes on their tails. The scapula (shoulder blade) is sub-rectangular, with a robust blade. The dinosaurs with hips that . (Stegosaurus) How many brains did Stegosaurus have? [5][2] Later in 1887, Marsh described two more species of Stegosaurus from Como Bluff, Stegosaurus duplex, based on a partial vertebral column, partial pelvis, and partial left hindlimb (YPM 1858) from Reed's Quarry 11, though the species is now seen as synonymous with Stegosaurus ungulatus. Last Update: May 30, 2022. . [83], Debate has been going on about whether the tail spikes were used for display only, as posited by Gilmore in 1914[7] or used as a weapon. The spikes were probably used as defense mechanisms, while it is . [31] Some large individuals may have reached 7.5m (25ft) in length and 5.05.3 metric tons (5.55.8 short tons) in body mass. The Stegosaurus had an arched back and short forelimbs. [72], As the plates would have been obstacles during copulation, it is possible the female stegosaur laid on her side as the male entered her from above and behind. The bony plates along its back were embedded in the skin of the animal, not attached to its skeleton, which is why in most . Four possible plate arrangements have been proposed over the years: After the end of the Bone Wars, many major institutions in the eastern United States were inspired by the depictions and finds by Marsh and Cope to assemble their own dinosaur fossil collections. [22] The Carnegie Museum in Pittsburgh on the other hand collected many Stegosaurus specimens, first at Freezout Hills in Carbon County, Wyoming in 190203. As to the number of eggs, incubation time, and parental care, we simply dont know yet. As the recently-described Yutyrannus shows, even 30-foot-long tyrannosaurs were fluffy. . The other ornithischians possessed teeth capable of grinding plant material and a jaw structure capable of movements in planes other than simply orthal (i.e. Albuquerque, New Mexico: New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science. [39] Their teeth were "not tightly pressed together in a block for efficient grinding",[93] and no evidence in the fossil record of stegosaurians indicates use of gastrolithsthe stone(s) some dinosaurs (and some present-day bird species) ingestedto aid the grinding process, so how exactly Stegosaurus obtained and processed the amount of plant material required to sustain its size remains "poorly understood". Did all dinosaurs have feather? This "brain" was proposed to have given a Stegosaurus a temporary boost when it was under threat from predators. [46] Galton (2019) interpreted plates of an armored dinosaur from the Lower Jurassic (Sinemurian-Pliensbachian) Lower Kota Formation of India as fossils of a member of Ankylosauria; the author argued that this finding indicates a probable early Early Jurassic origin for both Ankylosauria and its sister group Stegosauria. Preserved on slabs of ancient limestone in north-eastern Brazil, a newly discovered fossil of Tupandactylus imperator reveals the existence of pterosaur feathers about 113 million years ago. stegosaurus introducing dinosaurs english edition below. The finding raises the possibility that the very earliest. Around the middle of the tail, the neural spines become bifurcated, meaning they are divided near the top. In a zoological setting, these creatures would probably require care similar to rhinos or elephants. Farther posteriorly, the proportionately larger the cervicals become, although they do not change greatly in anything other than size. In their case, it contains what is called the glycogen body, a structure whose function is not definitely known, but which is postulated to facilitate the supply of glycogen to the animal's nervous system. Foster, J. On the sides of the jaws it had tiny, palm-shaped cheek teeth for chewing soft vegetation. Dinosaurs from Wuerho. Feathers evolved before flight and may have functioned as . [45] Histological surveys of plate microstructure attributed the vascularization to the need to transport nutrients for rapid plate growth. Dinosaurs are land-dwelling animals. Read on to learn about the stegosaurus. Though adult T. rexes were mostly covered in scales, scientists think . For example, though it states that scales came from the neck of a tyrannosaur, it does not state whether those scales were from the top, bottom, or sides of the neck. "Body mass estimates of an exceptionally complete Stegosaurus (Ornithischia: Thyreophora): Comparing volumetric and linear bivariate mass estimation methods", "The phylogenetic nomenclature of ornithischian dinosaurs", "A new long-necked 'sauropod-mimic' stegosaur and the evolution of the plated dinosaurs", "A new phylogeny of Stegosauria (Dinosauria, Ornithischia)", "Evidence for a Sauropod-Like Metacarpal Configuration in Stegosaurian Dinosaurs", "Dacentrurine stegosaurs (Dinosauria): A new specimen of Miragaia longicollum from the Late Jurassic of Portugal resolves taxonomical validity and shows the occurrence of the clade in North America", "A new specimen of the ornithischian dinosaur Hesperosaurus mjosi from the Upper Jurassic Morrison Formation of Montana, U.S.A., and implications for growth and size in Morrison stegosaurs", "Principal characters of American Jurassic dinosaurs, part III", "CAD assessment of the posture and range of motion of, "The socio-sexual behaviour of extant archosaurs: Implications for understanding dinosaur behaviour", "Internal vascularity of the dermal plates of Stegosaurus (Ornithischia, Thyreophora)", 10.1666/0094-8373(2005)031[0291:teafot]2.0.co;2, "The 'species recognition hypothesis' does not explain the presence and evolution of exaggerated structures in non-avialan dinosaurs", "Lies, damned lies, and Clash of the Dinosaurs", "Decoupled form and function in disparate herbivorous dinosaur clades", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Stegosaurus&oldid=1142738597, By 1891, Marsh published a more familiar view of, The plates were paired in a double row along the back, such as in Knight's 1901 reconstruction and the 1933 film, Two rows of alternating plates. Its skull looked like a parrot, especially the beak, but with no feathers. An average Stegosaurus was around 20 feet (6.1 meters) long, and weighed 2 tons. [7] Gilmore and Lucas' interpretation became the generally accepted standard, and Lull's mount at the Peabody Museum was changed to reflect this in 1924. [23] CM 11341, the most complete skeleton found at the quarry, was used for the basis of a composite Stegosaurus mount in 1940 along with several other specimens to finish the mount. [85], S. stenops had four dermal spikes, each about 6090cm (2.03.0ft) long. Did stegosaurus have feathers? The sacro-lumbar expansion is not unique to stegosaurs, nor even ornithischians. The blade is relatively straight, although it curves towards the back. [39] This has been proposed by Bakker[58][69] and opposed by Carpenter. A. Stegosaurus had a relatively low brain-to-body mass ratio. Bakker suggested in 1986 that the plates were covered in horn comparing the surface of the fossilized plates to the bony cores of horns in other animals known or thought to bear horns. According to paleontologist and National Geographic grantee Jack Horner, it stands to reason that dinosaurs had similar courting behaviors as today's birds. Of the species that have been classified in the upper Morrison Formation of the western US, only three are universally recognized: S. stenops, S. ungulatus and S. sulcatus. D. 4. [12] Another mount was made for the NMNH in the form of a mounted composite skeleton consisting of several specimens referred to S. stenops that were collected at Quarry 13 at Como Bluff in 1887, the most complete being USNM 6531. Giant sauropods like Diplodocus and Camarasaurus, smaller herbivores like Camptosaurus, and predators including Allosaurus and Ceratosaurus. Stegosaurus usually grew to a length of about 6.5 metres (21 feet), but some reached 9 metres (30 feet). Though it is not always perfectly preserved, the acromion ridge is slightly larger than in Kentrosaurus. [5] The specimen was one of many found at the quarry, the specimen consisting of a partial skull, several vertebrae, an ischium, partial limbs, several plates, and four thagomizers, though eight thagomizers were referred based on a specimen preserved alongside the type. [80] Christiansen and Tschopp (2010) state that the presence of a smooth, insulating keratin covering would have hampered thermoregulation, but such a function cannot be entirely ruled out as extant cattle and ducks use horns and beaks to dump excess heat despite the keratin covering. The presence of feathers in raptorial dinosaurs cannot be denied. And both of them bear battle . [23] Both the AMNH and CM material has been referred to Stegosaurus ungulatus. [25] Initially, Marsh described S.ungulatus as having eight spikes in its tail, unlike S.stenops. Researchers have determined that some dinosaurs had large forebrains, which would lead to heightened senses of both hearing and smell. [98], Dinosaurs that lived alongside Stegosaurus included theropods Allosaurus, Saurophaganax, Torvosaurus, Ceratosaurus, Marshosaurus, Stokesosaurus, Ornitholestes, Coelurus and Tanycolagreus. A feathered dinosaur is any species of dinosaur possessing feathers. Bite force was also calculated using these models and the known skull proportions of the animal, as well as simulated tree branches of different size and hardness. The saurischian dinosaurs are "lizard-hipped," while the ornithischian dinosaurs are "bird-hipped.". [2] These first, fragmented bones (YPM 1850) became the holotype of Stegosaurus armatus when Yale paleontologist Othniel Charles Marsh described them in 1877. [22] However, this classification scheme was not followed by other researchers, and a 2017 cladistic analysis co-authored by Maidment with Thomas Raven rejects the synonymy of Hesperosaurus with Stegosaurus. . [44] The fore limbs were much shorter than the stocky hind limbs, which resulted in an unusual posture. Two years ago a study claimed to have found fossil evidence of "protofeathers . We know that this dinosaur was herbivorous based upon its teeth. However, recent research re-examined this and concluded this species also had four. Like most plant-eating dinosaurs, it had no teeth in the front of its mouth, but only a beak. Some theories suggest that the large plates on their back could change color as a mating display or to attract a female. Martin, A.J. [49], Stegosaurus frequently is discovered in its own clade in Stegosauridae called Stegosauridae, usually including the taxa Wuerhosaurus and Loricatosaurus,[50] though Hesperosaurus is sometimes found in the group. [10][7] The skeleton was expertly unearthed by Felch, who first divided the skeleton into labeled blocks and prepared them separately. Dong, Z. M. (1973). Score: 4.3/5 (1 votes) . In a December study, scientists described two feathers from the mid-Cretaceous period (about 100 million years ago) found in the Kachin Province of Myanmar. The lower jaw had flat downward and upward extensions that would have completely hidden the teeth when viewed from the side, and these probably supported a turtle-like beak in life. Stegosaurus, therefore, probably browsed primarily among smaller twigs and foliage, and would have been unable to handle larger plant parts unless the animal was capable of biting much more efficiently than predicted in this study. [40], A detailed computer analysis of the biomechanics of Stegosaurus's feeding behavior was performed in 2010, using two different three-dimensional models of Stegosaurus teeth given realistic physics and properties. Confirmed Stegosaurus remains have been found in the Morrison Formation's stratigraphic zones 26, with additional remains possibly referrable to Stegosaurus recovered from stratigraphic zone 1. They are somewhat small for dinosaurs, but they are definitely way too big to live in your house! . Ears are made of cartilage and skin, and these are soft tissues which typically do not preserve well in the fossil record. Kessler contacted the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, who sent paleontologist Robert Landberg. Fossils of the genus have been found in the western United States and in Portugal, where they are found in Kimmeridgian- to Tithonian-aged . [40], This space, however, is more likely to have served other purposes. Stegosaurus is famous for its two rows of kite-shaped plates that stick out from its neck, back, and tail. In Hesperosaurus there are two dorsosacrals, and only four fused sacrals, but in Kentrosaurus there may be as many as seven vertebrae in the sacrum, with both dorsosacrals and caudosacrals. Stegosaurus is one of the most recognisable dinosaurs, for one main reason: the big, triangle-shaped plates lining its neck, back and tail. The dinosaurs with hips structured similarly to lizards include the great sauropods (e.g., apatosaurs, brachiosaurs, and diplodocoids), and the carnivorous theropods (e.g., tyrannosaurs, and dromaeosaurs). Stegosaurus walked on its toes, which were supported by thick, wedge-shaped pads.. Throat guard. Despite its popularity in books and film, mounted skeletons of Stegosaurus did not become a staple of major natural history museums until the mid-20th century, and many museums have had to assemble composite displays from several different specimens due to a lack of complete skeletons. This illustration would later go on to form the basis of the stop-motion puppet used in the 1933 film King Kong. The specimens can be identified as not mature because they lack the fusion of the scapula and coracoid, and the lower hind limbs. Although it was undoubtedly lacking in other respects, Stegosaurus did possess one relatively advanced anatomical feature: Extrapolating from the shape and arrangement of its teeth, experts believe this plant eater may have possessed primitive cheeks. [99] Stegosaurus is commonly found at the same sites as Allosaurus, Apatosaurus, Camarasaurus, and Diplodocus. :) lythronax-argestes 5 yr. ago Stegosaurus isn't a sauropod, if that's what you're implying. [3] Though several more complete specimens have been attributed to Stegosaurus armatus, preparation of the bones and analysis has discovered that this type specimen is actually dubious, which is not an ideal situation for the type species of a well-known genus like Stegosaurus. (Compsognathus) Compsognathus was a myth started by a man named Carl Strauss. Paleontologists had long thought that Stegosaurus had two parallel rows of plates, either staggered or paired, and that these afforded protection to the animals backbone and spinal cord. Stegosaurus, or Triceratops, are still alive. Fewer S. ungulatus plates have been found, and none articulated, making the arrangement in this species more difficult to determine. [39] Stegosaurian teeth were small, triangular, and flat; wear facets show that they did grind their food. They are powerful animals, and would need strongly reinforced fencing for their enclosures. [13] 1918 saw the completion of the second Stegosaurus mount, and the first depicting S. stenops. Now the presence of feathers has been documented in velociraptor, one of the most iconic of dinosaurs and a close relative of. [68] He had changed his mind, however, by 1891, after considering the heavy build of the animal. [24], 1987 saw the discovery of a 40% complete Stegosaurus skeleton in Rabbit Valley in Mesa County, Colorado by Harold Bollan near the Dinosaur Journey Museum. The earliest popular image of Stegosaurus was an engraving produced by A. Tobin for the November 1884 issue of Scientific American, which included the dinosaur amid a speculative Morrison age landscape. The fact is that evolution has a way of adapting specific anatomical features to multiple functions, so it may well be that the plates of Stegosaurus were literally all of the above: a sexually selected characteristic, a means to intimidate or defend against predators, and a temperature-regulation device. Following renovations to the museum in the 2010s, the model was moved once again for display at the Museum of the Earth in Ithaca, New York. In its own period, the late Jurassic, Stegosaurus was a relative minnow, sharing the planet with giant sauropods like Diplodocus and large predators like Allosaurus.Weighing up to 7 metric tons, its mass was similar to that of a large elephant.