Labrosaurus stechowi Janensch, 1920

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 : 6-7

Labrosaurus stechowi Janensch, 1920

Ostafrikasaurus crassiserratus Buffetaut, 2012

When Werner Janensch examined an approximately 4.9-centimeter-long tooth found at Tendaguru, he tentatively assigned it to the genus Labrosaurus , a member of a family of carnivorous dinosaurs. The genus had been introduced in 1879 by American paleontologist Othniel Charles Marsh to accommodate a species discovered in North America, and additional species were assigned to it later. 79 Marsh did not explain why he chose the name, but Labro probably derives from the Latin word labra, meaning “lip.”

Janensch chose the specific name stechowi to honor Walther Stechow, a medical officer and radiologist in the Prussian military: “I dedicate this interesting specimen from Tendaguru to the most worthy surgeon general Dr. Stechow of Munich in grateful recognition of his generous support of the Tendaguru Expedition.” 80 Stechow pioneered the widespread use of X-ray technology in the Prussian military’s medical services. He was a member of several scientific societies and supported the Tendaguru Expedition with a relatively large donation of 8,000 marks.

In 2011, Munich-based paleontologist Oliver Rauhut reexamined the original specimen and concluded that Labrosaurus stechowi actually belonged to the genus Ceratosaurus . 81 He was not able to identify any species-specific characteristics, however, and so the specific name must be considered a nomen dubium, as defined in the nomenclature code. (Nomen dubium means “doubtful or questionable name.”) 82

In 2012, French paleontologist Eric Buffetaut described a new genus with a single species— Ostafrikasaurus crassiserratus —on the basis of one of the teeth that Janensch had originally classified as Labrosaurus stechowi . 83 Buffetaut created the conspicuously German genus name in an explicit reference to the find’s colonial provenance; the specific name is a composite of the Latin words crassus, meaning “thick,” and serratus, meaning “serrated.” Taken together, the name means “coarsely serrated East Africa lizard.” 84