Apex Visual Description
Welcome to Apex
You are currently in front of Apex, the largest and one of the most complete Stegosaurus specimens ever uncovered. This webpage features a written description of the skeleton, as well as a text version of the information featured alongside the display. This page is designed for blind and low vision visitors but may be used by anyone.
For visitors using screen readers: Some content on this page is hidden under collapsible buttons, and the name of the button is the title of that section of content. Select those buttons to reveal the content related to that title.
Description
Standing in front of us on four sturdy legs is the skeleton of Apex, a Stegosaurus that is roughly the length of a minibus from nose to tail. Its fossilized bones, held in place by black metal bars, are a dark grayish, brown color and have a texture like rough stone. Every bone is visible, from its thick thigh bones that are roughly the length of an adult human’s torso, to its long, curved ribs that form a rib cage big enough for a child to lie down in, to the 27 vertebrae of its high, arched spine. It stands as if frozen in action, with its legs slightly bent, its mouth open, and its long tail raised into the air.
Apex’s back legs are longer than its front legs, so its hips and tail are raised higher than its shoulders. Its head is even lower; its curved neck is angled downward but then curves upward slightly so that its head can face forward. Apex’s oblong skull is surprisingly small compared to its massive body; it is only about 18 inches long from the base of the head to the tip of the snout. Its eye sockets are two round holes set far back on either side of the skull, with a slight ridge of bone above them. Tiny, leaf-shaped teeth line the back half of its open mouth; each tooth is about the size of a kernel of corn.
Apex’s most striking feature is the row of massive, flat, bony plates that runs down the length of its arched spine. The plates are irregularly shaped, and they are standing on their edges, sticking out from Apex’s back. Some have more jagged edges, and others have stretched out, protruding corners. The plates do not stand perfectly straight up and down; instead, they are staggered, so that one tilts slightly out to the left, the next tilts slightly to the right, and so on. You can touch a life-sized cast of one of Apex’s plates to the left of this QR code.
The plates are smaller on Apex’s neck, about the size of a human palm. They grow in size along Apex’s arched spine, with the largest about the size of a laptop computer. The plates get smaller again as we move down Apex’s long tail, which is about the same length as the rest of its body. The tail ends, not in plates, but in four thick, pointed spikes. There are two spikes sticking out on each side of the tail, and they are each about as long as a human forearm.
You can touch a raised line drawing of Apex to the left of this QR code, further left than the cast of the back plate. There is also an interactive display with an accessible keypad to the right of this QR code. Use headphones plugged into the keypad to navigate the display with a screen reader.
