Dacentrurinae

Mateus et al., 2009 Type genus Dacentrurus

Its genera lived 168.2–149.2 million years ago Middle Jurassic–Late Jurassic

Middle Jurassic and Late Jurassic stages

Dacentrurinae is a subfamily of stegosaurid dinosaurs uniting the forms most closely related to Dacentrurus, including Miragaia, Adratiklit, and Thyreosaurus. Its members lived during the Middle to Late Jurassic of Europe and North Africa. Compared with their close relatives the Stegosaurinae, dacentrurines tend to carry narrower spines running along the back rather than broad plates concentrated toward the tail, and their forelimb bones show robust proportions suggesting powerful musculature. Dacentrurinae and Stegosaurinae are sister lineages within the more inclusive clade Neostegosauria. Sánchez-Fenollosa and Cobos (2025) also recover the East African Kentrosaurus and the North American Alcovasaurus within Dacentrurinae.

Diagnosis

Two pairs of long terminal caudal dermal spines (thagomizer)
Dorsal centra wider than long in the Dacentrurus-Adratiklit-Thyreosaurus subgroup

Genera placed directly in Dacentrurinae

Adratiklit Maidment et al., 2020 Bathonian–Callovian (168.2–161.5 Ma)Morocco
Dacentrurus Lucas, 1902 Kimmeridgian (154.8–149.2 Ma)United Kingdom
Thyreosaurus Zafaty et al., 2024 Bathonian–Callovian (168.2–161.5 Ma)Morocco

References

Mateus, O.; Maidment, S. C. R.; Christiansen, N. A. (2009). A new long-necked 'sauropod-mimic' stegosaur and the evolution of the plated dinosaurs. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 276: 1815-1821. doi:10.1098/rspb.2008.1909
Erected the subfamily Dacentrurinae.
mateus2009a
Sánchez-Fenollosa, S.; Cobos, A. (2025). New insights into the phylogeny and skull evolution of stegosaurian dinosaurs: an extraordinary cranium from the European Late Jurassic (Dinosauria: Stegosauria). Vertebrate Zoology 75: 165-189. doi:10.3897/vz.75.e146618
Formalized Dacentrurinae and expanded its membership.
sánchez-fenollosa2025a