Kentrosaurus

Chapter • Meet the dinosaur

Overview

Kentrosaurus was a comparatively small stegosaur, reaching about 4.5 metres in length and weighing roughly a tonne. Its body arched upwards over the hips, the forelimbs were short and the hind limbs much longer, and the head was small and narrow with a horn-covered beak at the tip of the snout. Paired, leaf-shaped plates ran along the neck and shoulders, but from mid-back onwards they were replaced by long, sharp spikes. A further pair of stout spikes projected sideways from the hip or shoulder region, making the animal an awkward mouthful for any predator.

Chapter • Where it lived

Habitat

Kentrosaurus lived roughly 155–150 million years ago, in the Late Jurassic (Kimmeridgian–Tithonian), in what is now south-eastern Tanzania. Every known specimen comes from the Tendaguru Formation, one of the richest Jurassic dinosaur sites in the world, excavated by the German Tendaguru Expedition between 1909 and 1913. The setting was a coastal plain crossed by river channels and lagoons, with open, seasonally dry ground alternating with stands of conifers, ginkgoes and cycads. The climate was strongly seasonal, and Kentrosaurus browsed low-growing ferns, horsetails and other soft plants alongside sauropods such as Giraffatitan and Dicraeosaurus, while theropods including Elaphrosaurus and large ceratosaurs hunted in the same landscape.

Chapter • Wild behavior

Behavior & Ecology

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Chapter • Scientific place

Taxonomy