Name: Kentrosaurus
(Spike lizard).
Phonetic: Ken-tro-saw-rus.
Named By: Edwin Hennig – 1915.
Synonyms: Kentrurosaurus, Doryphorosaurus.
Classification: Chordata, Reptilia, Dinosauria,
Ornithischia, Thyreophora, Stegosauria, Stegosauridae.
Species: K. aethiopicus (type).
Type: Herbivore/low browser.
Size: Commonly 4.5 meters, isolated remains indicate
larger individuals potentially up to 5.5 meters.
Known locations: Africa, Tanzania, Tendaguru
formation.
Time period: Kimmeridgian of the Jurassic.
Fossil representation: Many individual bones. When
first discovered at the Tendaguru beds, the remains of upto 70
individuals were found together. From these, two composite
skeletons were assembled.
After Stegosaurus itself, Kentrosaurus is easily the best known of the stegosaurs. Many herbivores were known to have herded, and support for this in Kentrosaurus comes from the massive collection of bones from the Tendaguru beds. Like other Stegosaurs, Kentrosaurus was considered to be a low browser, although it’s considered possible for Kentrosaurus to rear up on its hind legs. The weight distribution of Kentrosaurus is interesting as the centre of mass is placed just forward of the hip, unusual in a quadrupedal animal. This means that very little of the body weight was supported by the front legs, and suggests that Kentrosaurus had a very tight turning circle.
Defensive
wise, the plates on the body of Kentrosaurus
would not have offered a
lot of protection. Even the plates on Stegosaurus
were not able to
provide sufficient protection from large predators, and those on
Kentrosaurus were even smaller. They probably were
left more as a
display mechanism for attracting mates. However the spikes on the
tail were a different matter. The tail had a large number of
vertebrae, at least forty, and would have been extremely
flexible.
Coupled with Kentrosaurus’s ability to pivot round
on its hind legs,
it would have easily been able to keep its spikes pointed towards an
attacking predator. Because the spikes ran the entire length of the
tail, it would have been virtually unassailable from behind.
Assuming that Kentrosaurus was a herding
animal, this defence
may have even been combined with others to produce a wall of swaying
spikes making only isolated individuals potentially vulnerable.
Kentrosaurus
once almost lost its name because of the ceratopsian dinosaur
Centrosaurus.
This gave rise to the alternate
names of Kentrurosaurus
and Doryphorosaurus. However not only are Kentrosaurus
and
Centrosaurus spelled diferently they are pronounced
differently,
Kentrosaurus with a ‘kicking K’, and Centrosaurus
with a soft C
pronounced more like an S. This is why renaming was never really
required and Kentrurosaurus and Doryphorosaurus
are considered synonyms.
Further reading
- Kentrosaurus aethiopicus, der Stegosauride des
Tendaguru."
("Kentrosaurus aethiopicus, the stegosaur of
Tendaguru") - E. Henning -
1925.
- Ein aufgestelltes Skelett des Stegosauriers Kentrurosaurus
aethiopicus HENNIG 1915 aus den Tendaguru-Schichten
Deutsch-Ostafrikas." ("A mounted skeleton of the Stegosaur
Kentrurosaurus aethiopicus HENNIG 1915 from the
Tendaguru layers of
German East Africa.") - W. Janensch - 1925.
- Kentrurosaurus aethiopicus. Die
Stegosaurier-Funde vom Tendaguru,
Deutsch-Ostafrika." ("Kentrurosaurus aethiopicus.
The Stegosaur find
from Tendaguru, German East-Africa") - E. Henning - 1925.
- The postcranial anatomy of stegosaurian dinosaur Kentrosaurus
from
the Upper Jurassic of Tanzania, East Africa - P. M. Galton - 1982.
- Skull bones and endocranial casts of stegosaurian dinosaur
Kentrosaurus HENNIG, 1915 from Upper Jurassic of
Tanzania, East Africa
- P. M. Galton - 1988.
- CAD assessment of the posture and range of motion of Kentrosaurus
aethiopicus HENNIG 1915 - H. Mallison - 2010.
- The real lectotype of Kentrosaurus aethiopicus
HENNIG 1915 - H.
Mallison - 2011.