About 100 feet away from the Stegosaurus/Allosaurus display at the Thermopolis Dinosaur Museum stands an amazing specimen of Tuojiangosaurus (Hilariously pronounced “Two-wang-oh-saur-us”). This Chinese cousin of the Stegosaurus was discovered and named in the late 1970s. It has several skeletons on display at museums on the Eastern side of the world, but they’re extremely rare in America. This is certainly the best one I’ve seen so far. You can tell the difference between Stegosaurus and Tuojiangosaurus by the back plates. Tuojiangosaurus’ are smaller and skinnier, and it also doesn’t have tail spines for muscle attachment. This suggests that the animal wasn’t able to rear up on its hind legs like Stegosaurus may have been. (See: The Houston Museum of Natural Science display for reference.) This means Tuojiangosaurus probably lived off of low-lying vegetation. Seems like a good guy who didn’t bother anybody!
Thermopolis, WY – Thermopolis Dinosaur Museum (Exhibit 2)
