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.
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.
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.
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.