London - A hundred million years ago she roamed the forests of Wyoming, swatting away rivals with her fearsome spiked tail.
Today this stegosaurus dominates an altogether more peaceful home – London’s Natural History Museum.
Sophie, as she has been named by her keepers, is the most complete stegosaurus specimen in the world, with 85 percent of her skeleton intact.
The 18ft long, 10ft tall beast, the most complete dinosaur specimen to go on display at the Natural History Museum for more than a century, was found in the US 11 years ago.
Poised in the museum’s entrance hall with her tail up, front body lowered, and open jaws pointing at arriving visitors, she promises to rival Dippy the diplodocus as its most famous artefact. But while 85ft-long Dippy is only a cast, Sophie – named after a wealthy donor’s daughter – is a real fossil.
Professor Paul Barrett, the museum’s chief dinosaur scientist, said: “Stegosaurus fossil finds are rare. This one inspires genuine wonder.”
Sophie was a young adult when she died. Her 360 individual fossilised bones were found in 2003 at Red Canyon Ranch in Wyoming. Dr Charlotte Brassey, research assistant at the museum, said: “We’re not sure why it’s so well preserved, but we’re researching the rocks around it’”
The team has been laser-scanning Sophie’s bones to create computer models. Professor Barrett said: “We aim to flesh out the details of the stegosaurus’ life.”
The researchers’ first goal is to work out the animal’s original weight – possibly a few tons – but are also especially interested in how it moved, how much it ate and the function of its 19 bony back plates. Professor Barrett said: “It was a fairly athletic dinosaur.”
The spiked tail was a formidable weapon, he said. “The spikes were possibly quite sharp and nasty. The tail was long and muscular and could probably have been swung from side to side with some force.”
Sophie’s skull is one of the few parts replaced with a replica. The real skull is made up of 50 tiny bones and is being kept behind closed doors for study.
BUS-SIZED BODY AND WALNUT-SIZED BRAIN
÷The stegosaurus could be up to the size of a bus, weighing in at around five tons and easily spotted by 19 distinctive bony back plates.
÷On the end of its tail – one of the most dangerous weapons ever evolved by a plant-eating mammal – it had fearsome 4ft spikes which it used to swat away predators.
÷But despite its size, it had a remarkably tiny brain, about the size of a walnut.
÷The dinosaur lived in late Jurassic period, some 155 to 100 million years ago in what is now western North America.
÷It would have spent most of its time munching enough plants to power its brutish body. - Daily Mail