Apex Stegosaurus Fossil

Now Open

Included with any admission.
Floor 4, Gilder Center

Adult and child visitor view the interactive next to the complete fossil mount of Apex Stegosaurus, on view in the Museum's Gilder Center.
Alvaro Keding/© AMNH
Meet Apex, a towering Stegosaurus that lived some 150 million years ago.

Named for its large size, this fossil skeleton is relatively complete and shows signs that this dinosaur lived into old age.

Stegosaurs were plant-eating, armored dinosaurs. Notice the spiky tail on the skeleton, shown raised high, ready to swing at potential attackers.

Now on view on Floor 4, Apex anchors the entrance to the Museum’s famed fossil halls from the Gilder Center. The exhibit includes a new touchable cast of a Stegosaurus back plate.

Fossil mount of Stegosaurus is surrounded by and oval-shaped railing that contains signs and interactives that visitors are engaging with. Alvaro Keding/© AMNH
Sign mounted on a railing displays a touchable Stegosaurus backplate with a hand reaching towards it from the right. Alvaro Keding/© AMNH

The rough surface of the bone was covered in keratin—the same material found in reptilian scales and human fingernails. Visitors can also explore the fossil in more detail at two interactive media stations. 

This fossil was discovered in 2022 just outside of Dinosaur, Colorado. It is extremely well-preserved, with more than 254 of approximately 320 bone elements. Missing pieces were filled in with 3D-printed and sculpted components.

Scientists in the Museum’s Division of Paleontology are now studying a sample of one of Apex’s fossilized thigh bones to learn more about how stegosaurs grew.

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Included with any admission.

Apex and its associated scientific research and educational activations are made possible by

Kenneth C. Griffin

and
Text logo that reads Griffin Catalyst.