Dacentrurus

Live reconstruction of Dacentrurus

• Europe

• Dacentrurus armatus ( Owen 1875)

Dacentrurus ("very sharp tail" ) was a dinosaur from the group of Stegosauria who lived in the early Jurassic, and its fossils have been found in several Western European countries.

Features

However Dacentrurus reached a length of 7 meters estimated, according to other sources up to 10 meters and was therefore one of the largest Stegosauria. Like all members of this group, he was characterized by a double row of bony structures ( osteoderms ) along the back and tail. However, the remains of these osteoderms are only sparsely available, presumably they were plate-shaped at the front part of the fuselage, while they were thorn -shaped over the hip and tip of the tail. However, the exact shape and arrangement of the bony plates or spines is not known. Compared with other Stegosauria the forelimbs were only slightly shorter than the rear legs. In details of construction of the vertebrae and pelvis, he differed markedly from most other Stegosauria. The skull of these animals is not yet known.

Discovery and designation

Dacentrurus was the first known Stegosaurus, it was first described in 1875 by Richard Owen armatus as Omosaurus. However, Frederic Augustus Lucas showed in his work published in 1902 that the generic name of Joseph Leidy Omosaurus had been awarded in 1856 for an extinct crocodile. Fossil finds have been discovered in England ( Cambridgeshire, Wiltshire and Dorset), in France and Spain and geologically younger remains in Portugal.

The finds date from different periods of the Upper Jurassic and are dated at 163-152 million years ago. Presumably, these are but a collection of different species, some only by individual skeletal remains known Stegosaurus, which also makes different size specifications (often Dacentrurus is described as a small Stegosaurus ) and information on the arrangement of the bone plates could explain.

System

Dacentrurus is one of the most primitive representative within the Stegosauridae. Phylogenetically he is - possibly along with Chungkingosaurus - as a sister taxon of the remaining Stegosauridae, which are summarized as Stegosaurinae.