LATE JURASSIC GONWANALAND

Tendaguru East Africa

updated 101616

Stegosaurs are a group of herbivorous ornithischian dinosaurs that lived during the Jurassic and early Cretaceous periods. Stegosaurian fossils are primarily known from the Northern Hemisphere, in what is now North America, Europe and China. The exception is Kentrosaurus from Africa.

Tyco Kentrosaurus

 The 17 foot Kentrosaurus is a smaller relative of the American stegosaurs.  The shoulder spike is common in stegosaurs from Asia but not known in North America.  Older representations place the spike on the hip but based on finds in China it now placed on the shoulder.

Schleich Kentrosaurus

Assumed to be a primitive member of the Stegosauria related to asian stegosaurs, several recent cladistic analyses find it to be derived, and a close relative to Stegosaurus from the North American Morrison Formation. This lends support to the idea that dinosaur populations were connected.

Kaiyodo Kentrosaurus Toyway Allosaurus

Overall the fauna of the Tendaguru is rather similar to the that of the Morrison. Kentrosaurus is smaller  than the North American stegosaurs. The marine environment creaed a wetter climate supporting the giant gymnoperms.