Wamweracaudia keranjei Mannion, Schwarz, Upchurch, Wings, 2019

Stoecker, Holger & Ohl, Michael, 2024, Taxonomies at Tendaguru: How the Berlin Dinosaurs Got Their Names, Deconstructing Dinosaurs: The History of the German Tendaguru Expedition and Its Finds, 1906 – 2023, Brill, pp. 233-254 : 5

Wamweracaudia keranjei Mannion, Schwarz, Upchurch, Wings, 2019

Most recently, in 2019, a German-British research team introduced the new genus and species Wamweracaudia keranjei . 106 The genus name is composed of two parts: the first refers to the Wamwera, who at the time of the excavations at Tendaguru were the most populous ethnic group in the region (they remain so today). The second part, cauda, is derived from Latin and means “tail.” This refers to the fossil remains of the caudal (or “tail”) vertebrae, which made up the holotype (the single type specimen on which the description and name of the new species were based). The specific name was chosen in recognition of the work of Mohammadi Keranje, who was a preparator on the Tendaguru dig. Keranje supervised the excavations of skeletons F, G and H; he was also part of the team that excavated quarry XVII and recovered skeleton X. 107 Among these skeletons were the vertebrae that constitute the holotype of Wamweracaudia keranjei . Mohammadi Keranje had previously lent his name to skeleton H, which was named Mohammadisaurus for the duration of the dig (see “Taxonomies at Tendaguru” above, p. 237). 108 Although Keranje was well-respected among the German expedition heads, he was accused of theft in 1910 and sentenced to 18 lashes and three months’ hard labor shackled to a ball and chain. 109

His name indicates that he belonged to the Kalanje, a matrilineal Mwera lineage. In Kimwera (the language of the Mwera people), no distinction is made between r and l and so it is quite possible that the Germans unwittingly turned Kalanje into Karanje or Keranje. The Kalanje lived in Ruangwa, near Tendaguru, and are said to have played a leading role in the area. 110

The description and naming of Wamweracaudia keranjei was based on a sequence of 30 caudal vertebrae and a few other bones that Janensch had originally identified as skeleton G, Gigantosaurus robustus (since renamed Janenschia robusta ). 111 The binomial is a composite of Kimwera and Latin words and names, and it literally means “Wamwera-tail/tail-saurian of Mohammadi Keranje.”

The names that were created for the fossil remains around 1910 and that contained references to African places and people were always understood to be temporary placeholders for the taxonomic classifications to come, and they were not used beyond the time of the dig. Traces of these ephemeral names have survived only in the expedition’s field notes, now in the Tendaguru archives; they do not appear in other sources and were not mentioned in the scientific descriptions published by the paleontologists after they left the field and returned to the German academic community. Almost a century would pass before the contributions of African workers at Tendaguru received recognition again. The naming of Australodocus boheti after an important African overseer in 2007 was thus a new phenomenon, and the naming of Wamweracaudia keranjei follows that precedent. This commemoration of African contributors is part of a growing effort to recognize and to make permanently visible the role Africans have played in the achievements of European scientists—in this case, on the dig at Tendaguru, but also more generally in the larger colonial context. 112

The centuries-old practice of referencing a person in a scientific name is an accepted way of paying homage to the people who, either intellectually or materially, supported research work and the spirit of scientific discovery. These names can even be seen as a form of reward or quid pro quo. The provisional on-site names and the formal scientific names point in different directions. They show how greatly context, political beliefs and institutional networks inform the biological sciences at the most basic level—that is, at the level of species naming and description. Names are scientific anchors in the vast profusion of known and unknown species, but they are also political labels expressing affiliations and loyalties; and to name a new thing is essentially to find a place for it among the things we already know. Moreover, the practice of using scientific names as dedications offers a welcome opportunity to honor contributors or supporters explicitly, in a manner that is accessible to scientists and laypeople alike. In the case of the Tendaguru remains, the spectrum of honorees covers scientists, discoverers, sponsors and directors (people who typically receive such recognition), but it also includes Lettow-Vorbeck, a ruthless and unprincipled general of the German colonial army and an idol of Germany’s extreme right during the interwar years. For the first time, the honor went to an African contributor in 2007, a female scientist in 2011, and another African contributor in 2019. As society’s values and priorities have changed in recent decades, a gradual shift in perspective can be seen in taxonomic practices as well.