A STEGOSAURUS PLATE
These lots have been imported from outside the EU … Read more
A STEGOSAURUS PLATE

WYOMING, USA

Details
A STEGOSAURUS PLATE
WYOMING, USA
a 20½ inch plate of Stegosaurus stenops from the Morrison Formation, Bone Cabin Quarry, Albany county Wyoming, Jurassic (156-147 million years ago)
20½in. (52 cm.) high
Special notice
These lots have been imported from outside the EU for sale using a Temporary Import regime. Import VAT is payable (at 5%) on the Hammer price. VAT is also payable (at 20%) on the buyer’s Premium on a VAT inclusive basis. When a buyer of such a lot has registered an EU address but wishes to export the lot or complete the import into another EU country, he must advise Christie's immediately after the auction.

Lot Essay

First discovered in the late nineteenth century by Othniel Charles Marsh, Stegosaurs are perhaps the most distinctive in appearance of all the dinosaurs with large plates along their backs and a fearsome tail spikes. The plates were originally thought to have been defensive armament for these enormous herbivores, but recently it has been suggested that they may have been for thermal regulations or sexual display.
The Bone Cabin Quarry is so-called because in 1897 W.G. Granger, a researcher for the American Museum of Natural History, came across a hut with its foundations made up from the local stone - pieces of dinosaur bone. Excavations in later years turned up some of the earliest and most important Jurassic specimens, such as the Carnegie Diplodocus, from which was made the famous cast "Dippy" who can be seen in the entrance hall of the Natural History Museum in London.

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