Kentrosaurus
KEN-tro-SORE-us
"prickle lizard"
- Lived
- 152 to 143 million years ago, Late Jurassic
- Diet
- Herbivore
- Length
- about 5 m (16 ft)
- Group
- Stegosaurs, Stegosauridae
- Found in
- Tanzania
- Named by
- Hennig 1915
Size comparison
To scale
Scale in meters
Where its fossils were found
The evidence
Today
150 million years ago
Habitat
Coastal plains near tidal channels and lagoons, with conifers and ferns. Giraffatitan, Dysalotosaurus and Elaphrosaurus lived in the same region.
Field notes
About Kentrosaurus
What it was like
Kentrosaurus was a plant eater covered in rows of bony plates and spikes running from its neck to the tip of its tail. It walked on all four legs and grew to about 5 meters (16 feet) long, smaller than its famous relative Stegosaurus.
Narrow plates ran along its neck and the front of its back, gradually turning into sharp spikes over the hips and tail. A long spike jutted from each shoulder, and the tail spikes were probably used to fend off attacking predators.
Its world
Kentrosaurus lived from about 152 to 143 million years ago, spanning the Late Jurassic and Early Cretaceous, in what is now Tanzania. Its fossils come from the Tendaguru Formation.
It shared its world with the meat-eating Ceratosaurus and Torvosaurus, the giant long-necked Giraffatitan, and other plant eaters such as Dysalotosaurus and Tornieria.
How it was found
Hennig named Kentrosaurus in 1915, after bones were collected during early expeditions to Tanzania. About 26 fossil finds are now known, an unusually large number for a stegosaur, giving a fairly complete picture of the skeleton even though no single complete individual has been found. Kentrosaurus is a close relative of Stegosaurus and other plated dinosaurs in the family Stegosauridae.
Field gallery
More views of Kentrosaurus
Scenes reconstructed from the available fossil evidence.
1 of 7
Lived alongside
Found in the same rock formations
A rock formation can hold fossils laid down millions of years apart, so not every animal here met Kentrosaurus.
The evidence
The science behind Kentrosaurus
Which parts of the picture come from its own bones, and which come from its relatives.
From its own fossils
- Hundreds of separate bones give a nearly complete picture of a low, four-legged animal with a small head and shorter front legs.
- Small plates along the neck and front of the back graded into long spikes over the rear of the body and tail.
- Thin sections of shoulder and thigh bones include animals that were still growing.
Borrowed from relatives
- Most of the skeleton is known from its own bones; Stegosaurus helps fill gaps in the arrangement of the body.
- Scaly skin is inferred from other armored dinosaurs.
Still unknown
- Exactly where the long side spikes attached, at the shoulders or beside the hips.
- How the plates, spikes and body proportions changed as young animals grew.
- Its color and whether it lived in herds.
Often drawn wrong
- The small plates at the front should grade into spikes at the rear, rather than form a tall row like those of Stegosaurus along the whole back.
- Its tail carried long spikes rather than a rounded club.
Discovery timeline
- 1915Named itHennig
- 2009Its worldBussert, Heinrich & Aberhan
- 2013Growing upRedelstorff et al.
- 2014PostureMallison
Key papers
The research behind what we know of Kentrosaurus
Named it
Named Kentrosaurus from the plates, spikes and skeleton bones collected in Tanzania.
Kentrosaurus aethiopicus der Stegosauride des Tendaguru [Kentrosaurus aethiopicus the stegosaurid from Tendaguru]. Sitzungsberichte der Gesellschaft Naturforschender Freunde zu Berlin 1915: 219-247
No link available
Its world
Described the coastal plains, tidal channels and changing seas that shaped the rocks where Kentrosaurus was buried.
The Tendaguru Formation (Late Jurassic to Early Cretaceous, southern Tanzania): definition, palaeoenvironments, and sequence stratigraphy. Fossil Record 12: 141-174
Read the paper : The Tendaguru Formation (Late Jurassic to Early Cretaceous, southern Tanzania): definition, palaeoenvironments, and sequence stratigraphy (opens in a new tab)Growing up
Examined the tissue inside Kentrosaurus bones and identified immature animals among the sample.
Bone Histology of the Stegosaur Kentrosaurus aethiopicus (Ornithischia: Thyreophora) from the Upper Jurassic of Tanzania. The Anatomical Record 296: 933-952
Read the paper : Bone Histology of the Stegosaur Kentrosaurus aethiopicus (Ornithischia: Thyreophora) from the Upper Jurassic of Tanzania (opens in a new tab)Posture
Moving plates and spikes in digital skeletons changed balance very little; the study also described support for placing Kentrosaurus side spikes beside the hips.
Osteoderm distribution has low impact on the centre of mass of stegosaurs. Fossil Record 17: 33-39
Read the paper : Osteoderm distribution has low impact on the centre of mass of stegosaurs (opens in a new tab)
Close relatives
Other members of Stegosauridae
Sources: Wikidata