Editing Kentrosaurus (section)

==Classification and species==
Like the spikes and shields of [[ankylosaur]]s, the [[bony plate]]s and spines of stegosaurians evolved from the low-keeled osteoderms characteristic of basal thyreophorans.<ref name="Norman">Norman, David (2001). "''Scelidosaurus'', the earliest complete dinosaur" in ''The Armored Dinosaurs'', pp 3-24. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. {{ISBN|0-253-33964-2}}.</ref> [[Peter Galton|Galton]] (2019) interpreted plates of an armored dinosaur from the [[Lower Jurassic]] ([[Sinemurian]]-[[Pliensbachian]]) Lower [[Kota Formation]] of [[India]] as fossils of a member of [[Ankylosauria]]; the author argued that this finding indicates a probable early Early Jurassic origin for both Ankylosauria and its [[sister group]] Stegosauria.<ref>{{Cite journal |author=Peter M. Galton |year=2019 |title=Earliest record of an ankylosaurian dinosaur (Ornithischia: Thyreophora): Dermal armor from Lower Kota Formation (Lower Jurassic) of India |journal=Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie - Abhandlungen |volume=291 |issue=2 |pages=205–219 |doi=10.1127/njgpa/2019/0800 |bibcode=2019NJGPA.291..205G |s2cid=134302379}}</ref>

The vast majority of stegosaurian dinosaurs thus far recovered belong to the [[Stegosauridae]], which lived in the later part of the Jurassic and early Cretaceous, and which were defined by [[Paul Sereno]] as all stegosaurians more closely related to ''Stegosaurus'' than to ''Huayangosaurus''.<ref>Sereno, P.C., 1998, "A rationale for phylogenetic definitions, with application to the higher-level taxonomy of Dinosauria", ''Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie, Abhandlungen'' '''210''': 41-83</ref> This group is widespread, with members across the Northern Hemisphere, [[Africa]] and possibly [[South America]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |last1=Rauhut |first1=Oliver W. M. |last2=Carballido |first2=José Luis |last3=Pol |first3=Diego |date=2020-12-10 |title=First osteological record of a stegosaur (Dinosauria, Ornithischia) from the Upper Jurassic of South America |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02724634.2020.1862133 |journal=Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology |language=en |volume=40 |issue=6 |pages=e1862133 |doi=10.1080/02724634.2020.1862133 |bibcode=2020JVPal..40E2133R |s2cid=234161169 |issn=0272-4634|url-access=subscription }}</ref> The South American remains come from [[Chubut Province|Chubut]], [[Argentina]] and consist only of a partial humerus, but the anatomy of the humerus is very similar to that of ''Kentrosaurus'' and both date to the Late Jurassic. In a phylogenetic analysis, the Chubut stegosaurid was recovered in polytomy with ''Kentrosaurus'' as basal stegosaurids, further suggesting that they are closely related.<ref name=":0" />

In Hennig's 1915 description, ''Kentrosaurus'' was assigned to the family [[Stegosauridae]] due to the preservation of dermal armor and features like posterodorsally angled neural spines on the caudal vertebrae.<ref name="Hennig1915" /> This is confirmed by modern [[cladistic]] analyses, although in 1915 Stegosauridae was a far more inclusive concept that included some taxa now classified as ankylosaurs. A consecutive narrowing down of this concept caused ''Kentrosaurus'', until the 1980s to be seen as a typical "primitive" stegosaurian,<ref name="Norman1985" /> to be placed in a more derived, higher, position in the stegosaur evolutionary tree. However, recent analyses have consistently found ''Kentrosaurus'' to be in Stegosauridae, though typically as one of the most basal genera in the family.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Hui |first1=Dai |last2=Ning |first2=Li |last3=Maidment |first3=Susannah C. R. |last4=Guangbiao |first4=Wei |last5=Yuxuan |first5=Zhou |last6=Xufeng |first6=Hu |last7=Qingyu |first7=Ma |last8=Xunqian |first8=Wang |last9=Haiqian |first9=Hu |last10=Guangzhao |first10=Peng |date=2022-03-30 |title=New stegosaurs from the Middle Jurassic Lower Member of the Shaximiao Formation of Chongqing, China |journal=Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology |volume=41 |issue=5 |pages=e1995737 |doi=10.1080/02724634.2021.1995737 |s2cid=247267743 |issn=0272-4634|doi-access=free }}</ref><ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1">{{Cite journal |last1=Raven |first1=Thomas J. |last2=Maidment |first2=Susannah C. R. |date=2017 |title=A new phylogeny of Stegosauria (Dinosauria, Ornithischia) |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/pala.12291 |journal=Palaeontology |language=en |volume=60 |issue=3 |pages=401–408 |doi=10.1111/pala.12291|bibcode=2017Palgy..60..401R |hdl=10044/1/45349 |s2cid=55613546 |hdl-access=free }}</ref> ''Kentrosaurus'' has many traits not seen in other stegosaurids but seen in basal stegosaurians, such as the presence of a parascapular spine and maxillary teeth with only seven denticles at the margin.<ref name="Galton1982" /><ref name="Galton1990" />

The [[type species|type]] and sole accepted species of ''Kentrosaurus'' is ''Kentrosaurus aethiopicus'', named by Hennig in 1915. Fragmentary fossil material from Wyoming, named ''Stegosaurus longispinus'' by [[Charles W. Gilmore|Charles Gilmore]] in 1914,<ref name="Gilmore14" /> was in 1993 classified as a North American species of ''Kentrosaurus'', as ''K. longispinus''.<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Olshevsky | first1 = G. | last2 = Ford | first2 = T.L. | year = 1993 | title = The Origin and Evolution of the Stegosaurs | journal = Kyoryugaku Saizensen | volume = 4 | pages = 64–103 }}</ref> However, this action was not accepted by the paleontological community, and ''S. longispinus'' has been assigned to its own genus, ''[[Alcovasaurus]]'', differing from ''Kentrosaurus'' in having more elongated tail spikes and the structure of the pelvis and vertebrae.<ref>{{cite web|last=Ulansky|first= R. E.|year= 2014|title= Evolution of the stegosaurs (Dinosauria; Ornithischia). Dinologia|page= 35|language=ru|url=http://dinoweb.narod.ru/Ulansky_2014_Stegosaurs_evolution.pdf|website=dinoweb.narod.ru}}</ref><ref>Ulansky, RE, 2014. Natronasaurus longispinus, 100 years with another name. Dinologia, 10 pp.  [In Russian].</ref> Cladogram of the phylogenetic analysis of Stegosauridae conducted by Maidment ''et al'' (2019), which recovers a distinct ''Alcovasaurus'':<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Maidment |first1=Susannah C. R. |last2=Raven |first2=Thomas J. |last3=Ouarhache |first3=Driss |last4=Barrett |first4=Paul M. |date=2020-01-01 |title=North Africa's first stegosaur: Implications for Gondwanan thyreophoran dinosaur diversity |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1342937X19302217 |journal=Gondwana Research |language=en |volume=77 |pages=82–97 |doi=10.1016/j.gr.2019.07.007 |bibcode=2020GondR..77...82M |hdl=10141/622706 |s2cid=202188261 |issn=1342-937X|hdl-access=free }}</ref>

{{Clade|{{clade
 |1={{clade
  |1=''[[Alcovasaurus]]''
  |2=''[[Paranthodon]]''
  |3=''[[Tuojiangosaurus]]'' }}
 |2={{clade
  |1='''''Kentrosaurus'''''
  |2={{clade
   |1={{clade
    |1=''[[Adratiklit]]''
    |2={{clade
     |1=''[[Dacentrurus]]''
     |2=''[[Miragaia longicollum|Miragaia]]'' }} }}
   |2={{clade
    |1=''[[Jiangjunosaurus]]''
    |2=''[[Hesperosaurus]]''
    |3={{clade
     |1=''[[Loricatosaurus]]''
     |2=''[[Stegosaurus]]'' }} }} }} }} }}|style=font-size: 85%; line-height:85%|label1=[[Stegosauridae]]}}