Kentrosaurus - Dinosaur - Enchanted Learning Software

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ALL ABOUT DINOSAURS!

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KENTROSAURUS, The "Spiked Lizard"

Plant eater
Very small head with a tiny brain and toothless beak
A double row of flat, bony plates halfway along its back, from its neck to mid-section
A double row of spikes along its back, from its mid-section to the tip of its tail and a pair of shoulder spikes
Walked on four legs, but the back legs were longer than its front legs

ANATOMY
Kentrosaurus measured up to 17 feet long (5 m) and weighed about 2 tons, but its small brain was the size of a walnut. Its skull was long and narrow, with a toothless beak and small cheek teeth. Its head was carried close to the ground. It had hoof-like claws on its toes.

Kentrosaurus had two rows of bony plates that were embedded in its back, that went from its neck to its mid-section. A double row of spikes ran from its mid-section to its tail, and a pair spikes protected its shoulders. Since these were not attached to its bones, no one is sure exactly how they were positioned. Also, the function of the plates is uncertain; perhaps they were for temperature regulation, since they contained networks of blood vessels, or maybe they were for protection or mating display purposes. The spikes were used as protection from predators.

Kentrosaurus had a very small, but long, brain. The olfactory bulbs were well developed; this is the part of the brain that gave the animal a very good sense of smell.

LOCOMOTION
Kentrosaurus walked slowly on four legs. Its back legs were twice as long as its front legs; this probably allowed the dinosaur to stand up briefly on its hind legs to forage for high vegetation.

WHEN KENTROSAURUS LIVED
Kentrosaurus lived during the late Jurassic Period, about 156 to 150 million years ago.

BEHAVIOR
Kentrosaurus, like other Stegosaurians, may have been a herding animal.

INTELLIGENCE
Kentrosaurus was a stegosaurian (stegosaur), whose intelligence (as measured by its relative brain to body weight, or EQ) was low among the dinosaurs.

DIET
This plated dinosaur was an ate low-lying plants. It must have eaten a large amount of low-calorie plant material each day to sustain itself.

DISCOVERY OF FOSSILS
Kentrosaurus fossils have been found in Tendaguru, Tanzania, Africa. Kentrosaurus was named in 1915 by Edwin Hennig.

CLASSIFICATION
Kentrosaurus was an herbivorous ornithischian (bird-hipped) dinosaur, belonging to the group Thyreophora (also called Enoplosauria, it consists of dinosaurs with dermal armor, including both the stegosaurs and the ankylosaurs, as well as some others) and the Stegosaurids (four-legged, bulky-bodied dinosaurs with a double row of plates and or spikes, which included Stegosaurus, Tuojiangosaurus and others).

LINKS
A Kentrosaurus printout

Information Sheets About Dinosaurs
(and Other Prehistoric Creatures)

Just click on an animal's name to go to that information sheet. If the dinosaur you're interested in isn't here, check the Dinosaur Dictionary or the list of Dinosaur Genera. Names with an asterisk (*) were not dinosaurs.
How to write a great dinosaur report.

For dinosaur printouts, click here.

For brief dinosaur fact sheets, click here.

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