Open Paleo

Kentrosaurus

Hennig, 1915 KEN-troh-SOR-uhs /ˌkɛntroʊˈsɔːrəs/

From Greek 'kentron' (prickle or spike) and 'sauros' (lizard); meaning 'prickle lizard', referring to its prominent spikes

154.8–143.1 million years ago Kimmeridgian–Tithonian, Late Jurassic
Late Jurassic stages

Kentrosaurus is a genus of stegosaurid dinosaur from the Late Jurassic in Lindi Region of Tanzania. The type species is K. aethiopicus, named and described by German paleontologist Edwin Hennig in 1915. Often thought to be a "primitive" member of the Stegosauria, several recent cladistic analyses find it as more derived than many other stegosaurs, and a close relative of Stegosaurus from the North American Morrison Formation within the Stegosauridae.

Under dispute

Kentrosaurus is securely a stegosaurid, but its subfamily placement is contested, having been recovered in Stegosaurinae (Maidment and colleagues, 2008), as a non-stegosaurine stegosaurid (Raven and Maidment, 2017; Maidment and colleagues, 2020; Raven and colleagues, 2023), and in Dacentrurinae (Sánchez-Fenollosa and Cobos, 2025). It is placed at Stegosauridae without a subfamily.

Diagnosis

  1. Neural spines of the tail markedly anticlinal, posteriorly inclined in the anterior caudals, sub-vertical through the middle third, and hook-shaped and anteriorly inclined in the posterior third
  2. Anterior and middle caudal vertebrae with a strong ridge and tubercle on the lateral surface of the prezygapophysis
  3. Dorsal vertebrae with a neural arch more than twice the height of the centrum, entirely occupied by the extremely spacious neural canal
  4. Preacetabular process of the ilium widening laterally rather than tapering
  5. Dorsal armor dominated by elongate, paired spines rather than plates, with modification series from rounded cross-section to flattened forms
  6. Humeral morphology with deep groove on dorsal surface above strongly inset trochlea

Species

Kentrosaurus aethiopicus Hennig, 1915

Type species

From Greek 'aithiopikos' meaning 'Ethiopian' or 'African', added by Edwin Hennig to denote the provenance of the fossils from Africa (then German East Africa, now Tanzania).

Lectotype
MB.R.4800.1, MB.R.4800.2, MB.R.4800.3, MB.R.4800.4, MB.R.4800.5, MB.R.4800.6, MB.R.4800.7, MB.R.4800.8, MB.R.4800.9, MB.R.4800.10, MB.R.4800.11, MB.R.4800.12, MB.R.4800.13, MB.R.4800.14, MB.R.4800.15, MB.R.4800.16, MB.R.4800.17, MB.R.4800.18, MB.R.4800.19, MB.R.4800.20, MB.R.4800.21, MB.R.4800.22, MB.R.4800.23, MB.R.4800.24, MB.R.4800.25, MB.R.4800.26, MB.R.4800.27, MB.R.4800.28, MB.R.4800.29, MB.R.4800.30, MB.R.4800.31, MB.R.4800.32, MB.R.4800.33, MB.R.4800.34, MB.R.4800.35, MB.R.4800.36, MB.R.4800.37 , Museum für Naturkunde, Berlin
Material
Partial skeleton of a single individual, comprising four posterior dorsal vertebrae, the sacrum, both ilia, an articulated series of the first 29 caudal vertebrae, both femora, and the left ulna.
Notes
Hennig (1915) designated no type, so the material of the original description forms a syntype series. Hennig (1925) selected two specimens as types, St 439 first and St 500 second; the German uses the plural for St 439, denoting not the sacrum alone but the whole associated partial skeleton, now MB.R.4800.1 to MB.R.4800.37. Mallison (2011) establishes that St 439 is therefore the lectotype, being the prior designation under ICZN Article 74.1.1, and that St 500 (MB.R.3613, MB.R.4555, MB.R.4557, MB.R.4558) is a paralectotype. The designation is valid because parts of St 439, the left femur St 463 (MB.R.4800.36) and the left ulna St 461 (MB.R.4800.33), are figured in Hennig (1915) and so belong to the type series. Galton (1982) and Maidment and colleagues (2008) instead treat the two articulating dorsal vertebrae MB.R.1930 and MB.R.1931 (field St 694 and St 695) as the holotype; that designation is invalid both as a later selection under Article 74.1.1 and under Article 74.5, and it supports a far narrower diagnosis.
Horizon
Middle Dinosaur Member, Tendaguru Formation, Kimmeridgian–Tithonian, Late Jurassic , 154.8–143.1 million years ago
Locality
Quarry St, Lindi, Tanzania

Synonyms of the genus

Name Type Reason
Doryphorosaurus junior objective Proposed as a replacement name when Kentrosaurus was thought to conflict with Centrosaurus; the rename was later determined to be unnecessary.
Kentrurosaurus junior objective Proposed as a replacement name when Kentrosaurus was thought to conflict with Centrosaurus; the rename was later determined to be unnecessary.

References

  1. Hennig, E. (1915). Kentrosaurus aethiopicus der Stegosauride des Tendaguru [Kentrosaurus aethiopicus the stegosaurid from Tendaguru]. Sitzungsberichte der Gesellschaft Naturforschender Freunde zu Berlin 1915: 219-247. hennig1915a
  2. Hennig, E. (1925). Kentrurosaurus aethiopicus. Die Stegosaurier-Funde vom Tendaguru, Deutsch-Ostafrika [Kentrurosaurus aethiopicus. The Stegosaur find from Tendaguru, German East-Africa]. Palaeontographica Supplement 7: 101-254.

    Monographic description of the Kentrosaurus material from Tendaguru.

    hennig1925a
  3. Mallison, H. (2011). The real lectotype of Kentrosaurus aethiopicus Hennig, 1915. Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie - Abhandlungen 259(2): 197-206. Schweizerbart. doi:10.1127/0077-7749/2011/0114

    Establishes MB.R.4800.1 to MB.R.4800.37 as the lectotype under ICZN Article 74.1.1, superseding the MB.R.1930 and MB.R.1931 holotype of Galton (1982), and emends the diagnosis.

    mallison2011a
  4. Jones, B. (2026). The Princeton Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs: Ornithischians. Princeton University Press.

    Source of the hip height estimate, and the appearance features.

    jones2026a
  5. Maidment, S. C. R.; Norman, D. B.; Barrett, P. M.; Upchurch, P. (2008). Systematics and phylogeny of Stegosauria (Dinosauria: Ornithischia). Journal of Systematic Palaeontology 6(4): 367-407. Informa UK Limited. doi:10.1017/S1477201908002459

    Systematics and phylogeny of Stegosauria recovered Kentrosaurus within Stegosaurinae.

    maidment2008a
  6. 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

    Recovered stegosaurian phylogeny placing Kentrosaurus within Dacentrurinae.

    sánchez-fenollosa2025a
  7. Bussert, R.; Heinrich, W. D.; Aberhan, M. (2009). The Tendaguru Formation (Late Jurassic to Early Cretaceous, southern Tanzania): definition, palaeoenvironments, and sequence stratigraphy. Fossil Record 12(2): 141-174. doi:10.5194/fr-12-141-2009

    Renames Hennig's Middle Saurian Beds, which hold quarry St, as the Middle Dinosaur Member.

    bussert2009a
  8. Galton, P. M. (1982). The postcranial anatomy of the stegosaurian dinosaur Kentrosaurus from the Upper Jurassic of Tanzania, East Africa. Geologica et Palaeontologica 15: 139-165. galton1982b
  9. Raven, T. J.; Maidment, S. C. R. (2017). A new phylogeny of Stegosauria (Dinosauria, Ornithischia). Palaeontology 60(3): 401-408. doi:10.1111/pala.12291

    Recovered Kentrosaurus as a non-stegosaurine stegosaurid.

    raven2017a
  10. Maidment, S. C. R.; Raven, T. J.; Ouarhache, D.; Barrett, P. M. (2020). North Africa's first stegosaur: Implications for Gondwanan thyreophoran dinosaur diversity. Gondwana Research 77: 82-97. Elsevier BV. doi:10.1016/j.gr.2019.07.007

    Recovered Kentrosaurus as a non-stegosaurine stegosaurid.

    maidment2020a
  11. Raven, T. J.; Barrett, P. M.; Joyce, C. B.; Maidment, S. C. R. (2023). The phylogenetic relationships and evolutionary history of the armoured dinosaurs (Ornithischia: Thyreophora). Journal of Systematic Palaeontology 21(1): 2205433. doi:10.1080/14772019.2023.2205433

    Recovered Kentrosaurus among the non-stegosaurine stegosaurids.

    raven2023a