Centrosaur

Centrosaurs moved on four limbs, but probably could stand on their hind legs, reaching for food up to high branches. The head is small, the cerebral cavity in the skull is not more than 6 cm. The length exhibited at the Berlin Museum of Natural History. Humboldt specimen 4.5 m, height 1.5 m, but individual bones found suggest that centrosaurs could reach 5.5 m. The tail, consisting of 40 vertebrae, is slightly more than half the body length.

Along the whole body from the head to the tip of the tail stretched two rows of bone formations that served as protection from predators. Flat and wide plates, similar to the stegosaurus plates, further to the end of the tail, more and more long spear-like spikes went on the neck and front of the body. The flexible tail, combined with the spikes on it, probably represented a formidable defense weapon. On the shoulders of the animal was an additional pair of long spikes sticking out to the sides.

The structure of the jaws of a centrosaur is poorly adapted for chewing; animals probably swallowed food in large portions without chewing it. Probably, the function of grinding food was taken by the tourites - stones that some reptiles and dinosaurs swallow for this purpose. However, in the case of the centrosaur, no gastrolites were found.

The remains of a centrosaur were discovered by German scientists during the East African expedition to Tanganyika (modern Tanzania ) in 1909 . In 1910, the paleontologist and geologist who led the expedition, Werner Janens, suggested the remains of an unknown representative of stegosaurids, and in 1915, paleontologist Edwin Hennig , who participated in the expedition, described this new species.

During the four field seasons, about 1200 bones of this dinosaur were collected, but a complete skeleton could not be found. Despite this, the fragments found where the bones and even the protective skin spikes were in a natural articulation made it possible to accurately restore the appearance of the centrosaurs and assemble two skeletons.

One full skeleton was installed in 1925 at the Berlin Museum of Natural History. Humboldt ( Museum für Naturkunde ). In 2006, it was disassembled and mounted in a slightly modified position, which is more consistent with modern ideas about the physiology of these animals. Another (incomplete) skeleton is in the geological museum of the University of Tübingen Eberhard Karl . Of the centrosaur bones collected by the expedition, most died during World War II .

The genus includes only one species, Kentrosaurus aethiopicus, found in the Late Jurassic suite of the Tendaguru formation . Fragments of the dinosaur Stegosaurus longispinus, discovered in 1914 by Charles W. Gilmore in Wyoming , were proposed as the North American genus of centrosaurs. But this hypothesis did not find support among most experts.

• Yu. Orlov et al. Fundamentals of paleontology. Volume 12. Amphibians, reptiles and birds. M .: Nauka - 1964. - S. 572-673.
• D. Dixon. Herbivorous dinosaurs. M .: Ast, Astrel - 2002. - S. 20-21
• A. Pakhnevich, A. Chegodaev. The amazing life of dinosaurs. M .: Astrel - 2001. - S. 289