Dacentrurus

Dacentrurus is an extinct genus of stegosaurian dinosaur from the Late Jurassic and perhaps Early Cretaceous of Europe. Its type species, D. armatus, was named in 1875 as Omosaurus armatus, based on a skeleton found in a clay pit in the Kimmeridge Clay in Swindon, England. In 1902 the genus was renamed Dacentrurus because the name Omosaurus had already been used for a phytosaur in 1856. After 1875, half a dozen other species would be named but perhaps only Dacentrurus armatus is valid.

Dacentrurus

the paleobear · CC BY 2.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Sits inside
DacentrurinaePBDB
Diet
herbivorePBDB, for Ornithischia
Life habit
ground dwelling, gregariousPBDB, for Ornithischia
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Ornithischia
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Ornithischia
Length
6 mWikidata

Time the record covers

At least 16 million years on record.

The record covers at least 149.2 Mya to 132.6 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 154.8 Mya to 121.4 Mya.

Late Jurassic — about 29 of 31 occurrencesLate JurassicEarly Cretaceous — about 2 of 31 occurrencesEarly Cretaceous155–154 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences154–153 Mya — about 1 occurrence153–152 Mya — about 2 occurrences152–151 Mya — about 6 occurrences151–150 Mya — about 6 occurrences150–149 Mya — about 4 occurrences149–147 Mya — about 2 occurrences147–146 Mya — about 2 occurrences146–145 Mya — about 2 occurrences145–144 Mya — about 2 occurrences144–143 Mya — about 1 occurrence143–142 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences142–140 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences140–139 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences139–138 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences138–137 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences133–132 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences132–131 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences131–130 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences130–129 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences129–128 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences128–127 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences127–125 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences125–124 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences124–123 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences123–122 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences122–121 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences149.2 Mya132.6 Mya155.5 Mya120.7 Mya

31 occurrences of Dacentrurus on record, most of them in the Late Jurassic. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

31 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

9 formations

Villar del Arzobispo — 38.67°N, 0.82°WVillar del Arzobispo — 39.93°N, 1.00°WVillar del Arzobispo — 40.13°N, 1.13°WVillar del Arzobispo — 40.35°N, 0.93°WLourinhã — 39.45°N, 9.21°WLourinhã — 39.24°N, 9.27°WLourinhã — 39.35°N, 9.32°WArgiles d'Octeville — 49.56°N, 0.09°EMorrison — 42.55°N, 106.69°WMorrison — 41.97°N, 106.29°WFreixial — 39.07°N, 9.28°WFreixial — 39.18°N, 9.33°WAlcobaça — 39.60°N, 8.82°WAlcobaça — 39.89°N, 8.61°WKimmeridge Clay — 51.55°N, 1.79°WPraia da Amoreira-Porto Novo — 39.37°N, 9.33°WPiedrahita de Muñó — 41.87°N, 3.17°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Dacentrurus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 3 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Dacentrurus and its relatives

Late Jurassic

Where Dacentrurus and its relatives were recorded in the Late Jurassic.

Found in the same rock

113 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 29 sites for Dacentrurus, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

18 references

Each of the 31 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. 6 further references are not listed. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content2

Picture of Dacentrurus

Credit
the paleobear
Licence
CC BY 2.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itDacentrurinae through timeFormations of the Late JurassicThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Lucas 1902