 Stegosaurus , one of the many dinosaurs first collected and described in the Bone Wars , was originally named by Othniel Charles Marsh in 1877 , from remains recovered north of Morrison , Colorado . These first bones became the holotype of Stegosaurus armatus . Marsh initially believed the remains were from an aquatic turtle @-@ like animal , and the basis for its scientific name , ' roof ( ed ) lizard ' was due to his early belief that the plates lay flat over the animal 's back , overlapping like the shingles ( tiles ) on a roof . A wealth of Stegosaurus material was recovered over the next few years , and Marsh published several papers on the genus from 1877 to 1897 . In 1878 , Edward Drinker Cope named Hypsirhophus <unk> , as another stegosaurian based on fragmentary fossils specimens from Cope ’ s Quarry 3 near the " Cope 's Nipple " site in Garden Park , Colorado . Many later researchers have considered Hypsirhophus to be a synonym of Stegosaurus , though Peter Galton ( 2010 ) suggested that it is distinct based on differences in the vertebrae . 
