A new addition inside the Natural History Museum’s Exhibition Road entrance in South Kensington, the 150 million-year-old Stegosaurus stenops – the first complete dinosaur specimen to go on display in the museum in almost 100 years – is the only Stegosaurus on display in a public museum outside of the US.

Featuring more than 300 bones, the 5.6 metre long and 2.9 metre high specimen was found in the US about 11 years ago. Missing only the base of the tail and the left arm, it is the most complete Stegosaurus skeleton in the world. It had been excavated from a site on the Red Canyon Ranch in Wyoming after being discovered in 2003 by Bob Simon, who runs a dinosaur quarry on the property.

The skeleton, which took three weeks to excavate, had 18 months of ‘preparation’ work carried out at the Swiss Saurier Museum before arriving at the NHM in December, 2013.

The new acquisition now forms part of the museum’s collection of 80 million specimens, including eight million fossils, which is actively studied by the museum’s 300 scientists and 9,000 visiting researchers from institutions around the world each year.

WHERE: Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London (nearest Tube stations are South Kensington, Gloucester Road and Knightsbridge); WHEN: 10am to 5.50pm daily; COST: Free; WEBSITE: www.nhm.ac.uk/stegosaurus.

PICTURE: Natural History Museum.