Stegosaurus braincase - micro-computed tomography visualisation | Natural History Museum

Palaeobiologists at the Natural History Museum revealed ground-breaking insights into the lifestyles of herbivorous dinosaurs by carrying out tests on its Stegosaurus specimen - the most complete Stegosaurus fossil ever found.

Using micro-computed tomography, the scientists were able to determine that - despite similarities between several herbivorous dinosaur species, the way they worked during biting was substantially different in each case.

This information allowed them to understand more about their different feeding specialisms.

Natural History Museum dinosaur expert Dr Paul Barrett said, 'Although Stegosaurus has been known about for more than 130 years, not much is known about its biology.

'Because the Museum's skeleton is almost complete - and three-dimensional - we can do a lot of things that have not been possible until now.

'The bones in our specimen's skull are separated from each other, so we can see how the skull fits together in 3D. We can then use this information to see how the skull would work as a chewing machine.'