Kentrosaurus

*Kentrosaurus aethiopicus*

* Jurassic Park Institute Artwork
* Robert F Walters Artwork

***Kentrosaurus*** was a dinosaur that lived in Tanzania during the Late Jurassic period. It was a stegosaur, closely related to *Stegosaurus*.

## Description

    *Kentrosaurus* was similar to *Stegosaurus* but was smaller, averaging around 5 meters (16 feet). It also had many more spikes then *Stegosaurus* had. Its two most striking ones were on its sides, jutting outward parallel to the ground; where they went on its body is disputed, with some scientists thinking they came out at the side of each of its rear hips, while others think they were fitted on its shoulders. Instead of having upright plates on its back as a spiketail (stegosaurus) most of the plates were actually more spikes.

### Size

The total length of a composite skeletal mount in the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin, Germany, from the tip of the snout to the tip of the tail is 4.5 m (15 ft). Slightly more than half of this length is made up by the tail. Larger single elements were found, so that the animal could probably attain a total length of 5.5 m (18 ft).

## Classification

There is one known, valid species in the genus *Kentrosaurus*, *Kentrosaurus aethiopicus*. Another proposed species, *Kentrosaurus longispinus*, is not regarded by scientists to actually fit within *Kentrosaurus* and is currently regarded as its own genus, *Alcovasaurus*.

## History

    The *Kentrosaurus* was discovered by a German expedition to East Africa in 1909 and 1912 . Edwin Hennig first described this genus in 1915.

## Paleobiology

It had a very large body and a huge stomach to eat rough and short plants. The front legs were much shorter than the rear, forcing the *Kentrosaurus* to walk on all fours. If it had tried to stand up on its own weight it would have to get on all fours again. Yet it is possible that *Kentrosaurus* could temporarily be on its hind legs to reach shrubs and plants.

## JPInstitute.com Description

Kentrosaurus was a small member of the stegosaur family.

It had 9 pairs of plates on its neck, shoulders, and back, and 5 pairs of long, sharp spikes above its hips and along its tail. Kentrosaurus also had a long spike on each of its shoulders.

Two composite skeletons of Kentrosaurus were assembled from hundreds of bones quarried by German paleontologists between 1909 and 1912 in Tanzania. It was named by Edwin Henning in 1915.

The Tanzanian quarry geology indicated Kentrosaurus lived near a large river. It is therefore thought that it fed on lush, low growing vegetation along the riverbank. So many Kentrosaurus bones were found in this quarry that scientists believe that at least 70 must have perished at the site. This also suggests that Kentrosaurus lived in herds.

Kentrosaurus was found in the same quarry as the famous Berlin Brachiosaurus, unfortunately one of the two existing Kentrosaurus skeletons was destroyed by an Allied bombing raid on Berlin during World War II.

## Dinosaur Field Guide Description

Kentrosaurus ("spiked lizard") is well named. A member of the Stegosauria, it has large spikes from the middle of its back down to the base of its tail. When compared to the North American Stegosaurus, Kentrosaurus has smaller plates. It appears that spikes evolved first in the Stegosauria, then plates developed from the spikes. The bases of Kentrosaurus's tail spikes are large and rounded, showing that they were solidly planted into the skin. This means that the spikes could
not be waved independently in the direction of an attacker. There is also another shoulder spike that has been restored at times as facing both forward and backward. A backward-facing spike is more logical, however: With a for-ward-facing spike, Kentrosaurus might have impaled itself in the neck!

### Fun Facts

The stegosaurs are the second
rarest major group of dinosaurs. The first are the pachycephalosaurs.

### Trivia

The Humboldt Museum in Germany has the only mounted skeleton on display.

## Fact Card

Download a flash card to cut out and quiz your friends: File:Df kentr.pdf

## Links

https://web.archive.org/web/20080704173556/http://kids.yahoo.com/dinosaurs/148--Kentrosaurus

## References

Template:References

1. ↑ Hennig, E. (1915). "Kentrosaurus aethiopicus, der Stegosauride des Tendaguru." ("Kentrosaurus aethiopicus, the stegosaur of Tendaguru") Sitzungsberichte der Gesellschaft naturforschender Freunde zu Berlin 1915:219-247 German