[D] Kentrosaurus aethiopicus [Su] [sG] [T]
Describer
Hennig, 1915
Time
Jurassic Late Kimmeridgian
Classification
Ornithischia Thyreophora Stegosauria Stegosauridae
Diet
Herbivore
Fossilsite
Tendaguru Beds, Mtwara, Tanzania
Info
Genus - Typespecies - Skull
Kentrosaurus aethiopicus (Hennig, 1915) = Doryphorosaurus (Nopcsa, 1916) Kentrurosaurus (Hennig, 1916)
2 composite mounted skeletons, 4 braincases, 7 sacra, more than 70 femora, approximately 25 isolated elements, juvenile to adult.
In the early 1980s, scores of bones unearthed in what is now Tanzania made Kentrosaurus (\\\\\\\"spike lizard\\\\\\\") Africa\\\\\\\'s best-known plated dinosaur. Kentrosaurus resembled a smaller, narrower-spined version of the Chinese stegosaur Tuojiangosaurus.
Six pairs of small, bony plates stuck up from its neck and shoulders. Behind these, three pairs of flat spines sprouted from its back; and five pairs of very long, sharp, narrow spines guarded its tail. Kentrosaurus might also have had a pair of plate-like hip or shoulder spines.
As in other stegosaurs, there were no bony tendons to stiffen the tail or back. Kentrosaurus aethiopicus is known from hundreds of bones, mostly disarticulated. Much of the material mentioned by Hennig, 1924 can no longer be located and is presumed destroyed.
Derived characters include a large neural canal within the pedicle and bordered dorsally by a thin transverse lamina in dorsal vertebrae, almost solid dorsal plate to centrum, neural arches cranially leaning in caudal vertebrae, the transverse processes extending as far as caudal 28, and the neural spines of the distal two-thirds of the tail show a marked anticline.
Hennig, 1915
Time
Jurassic Late Kimmeridgian
Classification
Ornithischia Thyreophora Stegosauria Stegosauridae
Diet
Herbivore
Fossilsite
Tendaguru Beds, Mtwara, Tanzania
Info
Genus - Typespecies - Skull
Kentrosaurus aethiopicus (Hennig, 1915) = Doryphorosaurus (Nopcsa, 1916) Kentrurosaurus (Hennig, 1916)
2 composite mounted skeletons, 4 braincases, 7 sacra, more than 70 femora, approximately 25 isolated elements, juvenile to adult.
In the early 1980s, scores of bones unearthed in what is now Tanzania made Kentrosaurus (\\\\\\\"spike lizard\\\\\\\") Africa\\\\\\\'s best-known plated dinosaur. Kentrosaurus resembled a smaller, narrower-spined version of the Chinese stegosaur Tuojiangosaurus.
Six pairs of small, bony plates stuck up from its neck and shoulders. Behind these, three pairs of flat spines sprouted from its back; and five pairs of very long, sharp, narrow spines guarded its tail. Kentrosaurus might also have had a pair of plate-like hip or shoulder spines.
As in other stegosaurs, there were no bony tendons to stiffen the tail or back. Kentrosaurus aethiopicus is known from hundreds of bones, mostly disarticulated. Much of the material mentioned by Hennig, 1924 can no longer be located and is presumed destroyed.
Derived characters include a large neural canal within the pedicle and bordered dorsally by a thin transverse lamina in dorsal vertebrae, almost solid dorsal plate to centrum, neural arches cranially leaning in caudal vertebrae, the transverse processes extending as far as caudal 28, and the neural spines of the distal two-thirds of the tail show a marked anticline.