Tendaguria, BONAPARTE

Mannion, Philip D., Upchurch, Paul, Schwarz, Daniela & Wings, Oliver, 2019, Taxonomic affinities of the putative titanosaurs from the Late Jurassic Tendaguru Formation of Tanzania: phylogenetic and biogeographic implications for eusauropod dinosaur evolution, Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 185, pp. 784-909 : 812

TENDAGURIA BONAPARTE ET AL., 2000

Type species: Tendaguria tanzaniensis Bonaparte et al., 2000

Gigantosaurus robustus : Janensch, 1929a

Holotype: MB.R.2092.1–2 ( NB4 and 5)– two associated anterior dorsal vertebrae.

Type locality and horizon: Nambango (site NB), about 15 km south-east of Tendaguru Hill, Lindi District, south-eastern Tanzania ( Fig. 1); probably from the Upper Dinosaur Member (Upper Saurian Bed), Tendaguru Formation; Tithonian, Late Jurassic ( Janensch, 1929a; Bonaparte et al., 2000; Aberhan et al., 2002; Bussert et al., 2009).

Revised diagnosis: Tendaguria can be diagnosed by one autapomorphy (marked with an asterisk), as well as one local autapomorphy: (1) dorsal surface of anterior dorsal vertebral diapophyses excavated by two fossae (one posterolateral to the prezygapophyses, along the anterior half of the diapophysis, and one posterior to the prezygapophyses)*; and (2) prespinal midline ridge in anteriormost dorsal neural spines.

Additional comments: These dorsal vertebrae were originally referred to Janenschia robusta by Janensch (1929a), although no clear basis was given for this attribution. A sacrum and ilium were also found at this locality ( Janensch, 1929a), but were never described or figured. These elements could not be located in the MfN collections and thus cannot be used to link Tendaguria to Janenschia because of a lack of overlapping material (see also: Bonaparte et al., 2000).