Dino card No. 0471 of 2,015

Dacentrurus

Say it: da-sen-TROO-rus

Name means: “tail full of points”1

Ate: PlantsPlated dinosLate Jurassic to Early Cretaceous

Dacentrurus was a huge, plant-eating dinosaur that lived in Europe during the Late Jurassic and Early Cretaceous periods. It had bony plates on its back and spikes on its tail to protect itself from predators.1

Lived

155 to 121 million years ago3

Late Jurassic to Early Cretaceous

Fossils found in

England, France, Portugal, and Spain1 2

Food

Plants1 2

Length

8 to 9 m1

Weight

5 tonnes to 7.4 tonnes1

Height

1.8 m1

at the hips

Artist's life restoration of Dacentrurus — How Dacentrurus may have looked, by Connor Ashbridge. CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Scientists still argue about colours and details.

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

How big was it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

Dacentrurus was one of the largest stegosaurs, about as long as a school bus.1

It was the first stegosaur dinosaur ever discovered, with good remains found in 1875.1 2

Dacentrurus had two rows of small plates on its neck and two rows of long spikes on its tail.1

Its name was changed from Omosaurus because that name was already used for a different ancient reptile.1

The gut of Dacentrurus was especially broad, suggesting it had a large belly for digesting plants.1

Fossils of Dacentrurus have been found in Portugal, Spain, France, and England.1 2

For dino experts

Scientific name: Dacentrurus
Named by: Lucas 19023
Group: Plated dinos
Family / clade: Stegosauridae3
Classification: Ornithischia > Stegosauria > Thyreophora3
Age of the rocks: 155 to 121 million years (Kimmeridgian to Barremian)3
Rock formations: Villar del Arzobispo, Lourinhã, Argiles d'Octeville3
Countries: Portugal, Spain, France, United Kingdom3
Fossil records: 31 in the Paleobiology Database3
Also known as: Natronasaurus, Omosaurus (older names now counted as the same animal)3
Discovery: Dacentrurus was first named Omosaurus armatus by Richard Owen in 1875, based on a skeleton found in a clay pit in Swindon, England. In 1902, Frederick Augustus Lucas renamed it Dacentrurus because the name Omosaurus was already taken.1
Still debated: Scientists still debate whether the dinosaur Miragaia longicollum is actually the same species as Dacentrurus.1

Where the facts come from

Dacentrurus - Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)
Dacentrurus | Natural History Museum (nhm.ac.uk)
Dacentrurus in The Paleobiology Database (CC BY 4.0): age, places, rock formations, classification.

Every fact on this page has a number that points to its source. If we got something wrong, sorry, we are dino fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.