| Kentrosaurus Fossil range: Late Jurassic |
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 Kentrosaurus skeleton,
Museum für Naturkunde, der Humboldt Universitat zu Berlin |
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Kentrosaurus meaning 'pointed lizard' (pronounced /ˌkɛtroʊˈsɔrəs/ KEN-troe-SAW-rus)(from the Greek kentron/κεντρον meaning 'point' or 'prickle' and sauros/σαυρος meaning 'lizard') is a genus of stegosaurid dinosaur from the Late Jurassic of Tanzania, related to the better-known Stegosaurus of North America. In Taxonomy, a type species is the species that originally defined a genus. The Ancient Greek language is the historical stage in the development of the Hellenic language family spanning the Archaic (c A genus (plural genera from Γένος Latin genus "descent family type gender" is a low-level Taxonomic Known colloquially as stegosaurs the Stegosauria are a group of herbivorous Dinosaurs of the Jurassic and Early Cretaceous Periods The Late Jurassic (or Malm) Epoch of the Jurassic Period is the unit of geologic time from 161 Tanzania ˌtænzəˈniːə officially the United Republic of Tanzania (Jamhuri ya Muungano wa Tanzania is a country in East Africa bordered by Kenya Stegosaurus (ˌstɛgəˈsɔrəs is a Genus of stegosaurid armoured Dinosaur from the Late Jurassic period ( The two differed in size, in the shape of their armour plating, and in their bodily flexibility, however. Armor (or armour) in animals is external or superficial protection against attack by predators formed as part of the body (rather than the behavioural use of protective external
The ceratopsid dinosaur Centrosaurus from the late Cretaceous period derives its name from the same Ancient Greek words, but the initial letter has changed to a 'C' and is pronounced as a soft C to avoid confusion. Ceratopsidae (sometimes spelled Ceratopidae) is a speciose group of Marginocephalian Dinosaurs including Triceratops and Styracosaurus Centrosaurus (ˌsɛtroʊˈsɔrəs SEN-tro-SAW-rus, meaning "pointed lizard" (from Greek kentron/κεντρον = "point or The Cretaceous (kriːˈteɪʃəs, usually abbreviated 'K' for its German translation "Kreide" is a geologic period and system, reaching from the end of A hard c vs a soft c is a feature that occurs in many Languages including English, in which two
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Discovery and species
The 1909–1912 German expedition to East Africa resulted in the discovery of several new dinosaur species, of which Kentrosaurus was one of the most important, for the reason outlined above — it implied a former proximity of Tanzania to the Morrison Formation, in the eastern part of the Rocky Mountains. East Africa is the Easternmost Region of the African Continent. The Morrison Formation is a distinctive sequence of Late Jurassic Sedimentary rock that is found in the western United States which has been the most fertile source Mountain peaks of the Rocky Mountains The Rocky Mountains, often called the Rockies, are a Mountain range in western North America. Of the three paleontologists on this expedition, it was Edwin Hennig who first described Kentrosaurus, in 1915. Palaeontology redirects here For the Scientific journal, see Palaeontology (journal. An almost-complete skeleton was at one time recovered and mounted in the Humboldt Museum, of the University of Berlin but the museum was bombed during World War II and many specimens were lost. The Museum für Naturkunde (in English, the Museum of Natural History) widely known as the Naturkundemuseum, occasionally as the Humboldt Museum For other universities in Berlin see List of Universities in Berlin. World War II, or the Second World War, (often abbreviated WWII) was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including
Paleobiology
Kentrosaurus was smaller than Stegosaurus. Kentrosaurus was just 4. 9 metres (16 ft) long and had a much lower weight (although no accurate estimates can yet be made) It was certainly small for a stegosaurian. The metre or meter is a unit of Length. It is the basic unit of Length in the Metric system and in the International A foot (plural feet or foot; symbol or abbreviation ft or sometimes &prime – the prime symbol) is a non-SI unit Known colloquially as stegosaurs the Stegosauria are a group of herbivorous Dinosaurs of the Jurassic and Early Cretaceous Periods
Armor
Kentrosaurus armor is also rather different from that of Stegosaurus. Kentrosaurus had small dorsal plates along its neck and shoulders. In Anatomy, the dorsum is the upper side of animals that typically run fly or swim in a horizontal position and the back side of animals (like humans that walk upright Along the rest of the back and down the tail were several — typically six — spectacular pairs of imposing caudal spikes, each up to a foot in length (see also: Thagomizer). In fields of Anatomy, anatomical terms of location are descriptive terms to help identify relative positions or directions within a species The thagomizer, or tail spikes, is an arrangement of four to ten spikes on the tails of particular Dinosaurs of the clade Stegosauria, of Like other stegosaurs, such as the European Lexovisaurus, it had another pair of spikes jutting backwards from the shoulders (often represented as jutting from the hips in older restorations). Lexovisaurus was one of the first Dinosaurs from mid-to-Late Jurassic Europe, 165 mya to be discovered Unlike Stegosaurus, which may have used its large plates for thermoregulation, the spines of Kentrosaurus were not well suited to such a function. Thermoregulation is the ability of an Organism to keep its body temperature within certain boundaries even when temperature surrounding is very different They could have been used as display features, or armour for self-defence. Self-defense (or self-defence &mdash see spelling differences) is the act of defending oneself one's property or the well-being of another from physical harm
Kentrosaurus would have been preyed upon by theropods similar to Allosaurus. Theropods (ˈθɪərəpɒd theropoda /θiːˈrɒpədə/ 'beast feet' are a group of Bipedal Saurischian Dinosaurs Although they were primarily Allosaurus (ˌæləˈsɔrəs is a Genus of large Theropod Dinosaur that lived 155 to 145 million years ago in the Late Jurassic It could have used its tail to ward off attacks by lashing the tail from side to side. The spines along Kentrosaurus' flanks would also have helped protect the animal from attacks.
Posture
Kentrosaurus also differed from Stegosaurus in one other key feature — it lacked the pronounced spines on the backbone, near the hip and tail region, that characterise the vertebrae of a Stegosaurus. A vertebra (plural vertebrae) is an individual Irregular bone in the spinal or Vertebral column ( aka ischis a flexuous and flexible column The length of the thigh bone compared with the rest of the leg indicates that Kentrosaurus was a slow and inactive dinosaur. It may have reared up on its hind legs to reach twigs and leaves, but would normally have been fully quadrupedal. Quadrupedalism (from Latin meaning "four legs" is a form of land animal locomotion using four legs.
Environment
The similarities and differences between kentrosaurs and stegosaurs illustrate well the geological principle of continental drift. Continental drift is the movement of the Earth 's Continents relative to each other The similarity between the kentrosaur fossils found in Tendaguru, Tanzania and the stegosaur fossils found in North America are evidence that these two points of the globe, now widely separated, were once very close together and indeed part of a supercontinent, known by geologists as Pangaea and, later, the northern half, known as Laurasia. The Tendaguru beds are a fossil rich formation in Tanzania. It has been considered the richest of Late Jurassic strata in Africa. Tanzania ˌtænzəˈniːə officially the United Republic of Tanzania (Jamhuri ya Muungano wa Tanzania is a country in East Africa bordered by Kenya A globe is a three- Dimensional scale model of Earth ( terrestrial globe) or other spheroid celestial body such as a planet star or moon Pangaea, Pangæa or Pangea (pænˈdʒiːə from παν pan, meaning entire, and Γαῖα Gaea, meaning Earth in Laurasia (lɔˈreɪʃiə lɔˈreɪʒə was a Supercontinent that most recently existed as a part of the split of the Pangaean supercontinent in the late Mesozoic These two points must also have had very similar climatic conditions, in order to have produced such similar specimens. Climate encompasses the temperatures humidity rainfall atmospheric particle count and numerous other meteorogical factors in a given region over long periods of Meanwhile, the differences between the animals illustrate the changes that their different ancestors underwent divergent evolution as the two groups of animals parted company, because of the subsequent separation of the tectonic plates. Divergent evolution is the accumulation of differences between groups which can lead to the formation of new species usually a result of different groups of the same species adapting to different Plate tectonics (from Greek τέκτων tektōn "builder" or "mason" describes the large scale motions of Earth 's Lithosphere
References
- Liddell & Scott (1980). Greek-English Lexicon, Abridged Edition. Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK. ISBN 0-19-910207-4.
External links
- Kentrosaurus in The Dinosaur Encyclopaedia at Dino Russ's Lair
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