Where the facts come from
Every factual claim on this site links to its source. This is the full list.
How we checked
Each fact was written alongside its source. Our build script stores the source text and, for every fact, checks that the key words and figures really appear in it. 171 of 171 checks passed when this site was last built (October 2026). Where we couldn’t find a source we could read, we left the claim out.
What we use
Only museum and peer-reviewed sources: the Natural History Museum in London, the Smithsonian (its museum pages and Smithsonian Magazine), the American Museum of Natural History, and peer-reviewed scientific papers, which we read in full. The state fossil comes from the Colorado State Archives.
Figures that change
Palaeontology moves quickly. New fossils turn up and new studies revise old ideas, especially for size and for debates like what the plates were for. Facts like these are marked “checked 27 Oct 2026” so you know how fresh they are, and we say where estimates vary or scientists disagree. Dates of discoveries and names, such as Stegosaurus being named in 1877, don’t change.
Natural History Museum (20)
- Natural History Museum news: Weight of the world’s most complete Stegosaurus revealed, 2015 (2 facts)
- Natural History Museum press release: World’s most complete Stegosaurus goes on show, 2014 (10 facts)
- Natural History Museum: A Stegosaurus brought to life (9 facts)
- Natural History Museum: Allosaurus (Dino Directory) (3 facts)
- Natural History Museum: Ankylosaurus (Dino Directory) (1 fact)
- Natural History Museum: Apatosaurus (Dino Directory) (1 fact)
- Natural History Museum: Brachiosaurus (Dino Directory) (1 fact)
- Natural History Museum: Camarasaurus (Dino Directory) (1 fact)
- Natural History Museum: Camptosaurus (Dino Directory) (1 fact)
- Natural History Museum: Ceratosaurus (Dino Directory) (1 fact)
- Natural History Museum: Dacentrurus (Dino Directory) (2 facts)
- Natural History Museum: Diplodocus (Dino Directory) (2 facts)
- Natural History Museum: Gargoyleosaurus (Dino Directory) (1 fact)
- Natural History Museum: Huayangosaurus (Dino Directory) (1 fact)
- Natural History Museum: Kentrosaurus (Dino Directory) (2 facts)
- Natural History Museum: Scelidosaurus (Dino Directory) (1 fact)
- Natural History Museum: Secrets of the Stegosaurus, 2014 (2 facts)
- Natural History Museum: Stegosaurus (Dino Directory) (16 facts)
- Natural History Museum: Stegosaurus Q&A with Prof Paul Barrett (12 facts)
- Natural History Museum: Tuojiangosaurus (Dino Directory) (1 fact)
Smithsonian (13)
- Smithsonian Magazine: Apex on display in New York, 2024 (5 facts)
- Smithsonian Magazine: Meet the dinos of “Deep Time”, 2019 (11 facts)
- Smithsonian Magazine: Playing the stegosaur name game, 2010 (3 facts)
- Smithsonian Magazine: Stegosaurus plate debate, 2012 (6 facts)
- Smithsonian Magazine: The double dinosaur brain myth, 2012 (3 facts)
- Smithsonian Magazine: The many postures of Kentrosaurus, 2010 (2 facts)
- Smithsonian Magazine: The myth of the eight-spiked Stegosaurus, 2011 (4 facts)
- Smithsonian Magazine: The weak bite of Stegosaurus, 2010 (1 fact)
- Smithsonian Magazine: Tracking cryptic stegosaurs, 2010 (3 facts)
- Smithsonian Magazine: Watch out for that thagomizer!, 2011 (6 facts)
- Smithsonian Magazine: “Apex” sells for $44.6 million, 2024 (5 facts)
- Smithsonian NMNH virtual tour: Stegosaurus spikes vs. Ceratosaurus claws (2 facts)
- Smithsonian fact sheet: David H. Koch Hall of Fossils – Deep Time (1 fact)
Peer-reviewed papers (6)
- Brassey, Maidment & Barrett (2015), Body mass estimates of an exceptionally complete Stegosaurus, Biology Letters (2 facts)
- Costa & Mateus (2019), Dacentrurine stegosaurs: a new specimen of Miragaia longicollum, PLOS ONE (1 fact)
- Lautenschlager, Brassey, Button & Barrett (2016), Decoupled form and function in disparate herbivorous dinosaurs, Scientific Reports (1 fact)
- Li Ning et al. (2024), A new stegosaur from the Middle Jurassic of Gansu Province, China, Scientific Reports (2 facts)
- Maidment, Brassey & Barrett (2015), The postcranial skeleton of an exceptionally complete individual of Stegosaurus stenops, PLOS ONE (21 facts)
- Saitta (2015), Evidence for sexual dimorphism in the plated dinosaur Stegosaurus mjosi, PLOS ONE (2 facts)
American Museum of Natural History (1)
- American Museum of Natural History: Apex Stegosaurus fossil and “11 Questions About Stegosaurus” (19 facts)