Meet Stego!

Special moments are better together

Stego enjoys the little things: a relaxing bath, time with friends and the excitement of a colourful sky. His favourite evening becomes the starting point for a story about making time for one another.

Good for sharing with little readers

Dinosaur Fireworks Night invites families to talk about friendship and togetherness. Ask your child who they would like to share a special evening with, or which colours they would put in Stego’s sky. The story is written for children aged 2 to 7.

Explore Dinosaur Fireworks Night, available now, or find another adventure in our children’s dinosaur book collection.

Spot a real Stegosaurus

Stegosaurus was a plant eating dinosaur that lived in the Late Jurassic, around 150 million years ago. Its easy spotting clues are the large plates along its back, a small head and spikes on its tail.

Stego’s baths, fireworks and excited plate shakes belong to our imaginative stories. For real dinosaur spotting, count the plates in a picture and compare his spiked tail with Anky’s tail club in the dinosaur identification guide.

About the real Stegosaurus

A large Stegosaurus could reach around nine metres long. It lived millions of years before Tyrannosaurus rex, so the two animals did not meet in real life. Storybooks let us bring dinosaurs from different times together for an imaginary adventure.

The plates were bony structures in the skin, rather than bones joined directly to the spine. Scientists still discuss their purpose: they may have helped with display, recognition or controlling body temperature. Its strong, spiked tail offered protection from predators. When you look at Stego, notice how different his plates and tail are from Anky’s armour and club.

Explore more with the Natural History Museum’s Stegosaurus guide.