KENTROSAURUS
Kentrosaurus aethiopicus
Meaning: "Pointed Lizard"
📊 STATS
Size comparison:
About as long as a small car!
📖 ABOUT KENTROSAURUS
Meet Kentrosaurus, the 'Pointed Lizard'! This cool herbivore had spikes on its back and tail to protect itself from predators during the Late Jurassic period!
Kentrosaurus, meaning 'Pointed Lizard', was a fascinating plant-eating dinosaur that roamed the Earth during the Late Jurassic period, about 155 to 150 million years ago. Imagine a creature about the size of a small car, covered in plates and spikes! Unlike its more famous cousin, Stegosaurus, Kentrosaurus had smaller plates running along its back and much longer, sharper spikes along its tail and hips. These spikes were its main defense against predators like Allosaurus.
Kentrosaurus munched on ferns, cycads, and other low-lying plants. It used its beak-like mouth to strip leaves from branches. Scientists believe Kentrosaurus lived in what is now Tanzania, Africa. Fossils show they were quadrupedal, meaning they walked on all four legs. They probably weren't very fast, but those pointy spikes made them a formidable foe to any hungry carnivore!
🔬 CLASSIFICATION
- Group
- Thyreophora
- Family
- Stegosauridae
- Period
- Late Jurassic (163-145 Ma)
- Era
- 155.0 - 150.0 million years ago
🗺️ DISCOVERY
- Year
- 1915
- Discovered by
- Edwin Hennig
- Location
- Tanzania
- Fossils found in
- Tanzania
🎨 SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATION
Artistic reconstruction of Kentrosaurus based on fossil evidence
🗺️ WHERE FOSSILS WERE FOUND
Tanzania
🤓 FUN FACTS
- ✨ Kentrosaurus had spikes on its tail called a 'thagomizer' - just like Stegosaurus!
- ✨ Its name, 'Pointed Lizard,' comes from all the pointy spikes on its body!
- ✨ Kentrosaurus fossils were first discovered in Tanzania, Africa!
- ✨ It lived during the Late Jurassic period, the same time as Allosaurus and Brachiosaurus!
- ✨ Scientists think Kentrosaurus might have been able to swing its spiked tail to defend itself!
💡 DID YOU KNOW?
Get this! Kentrosaurus's brain was about the size of a walnut. That's tiny compared to its body size!
