The
Tendaguru Beds are a fossil-rich
formationThis is a list of rock formations that include isolated, scenic, or spectacular surface rock outcrops. These formations are usually the result of weathering and erosion sculpting the existing rock...
in
TanzaniaThe United Republic of Tanzania is a country in East Africa bordered by Kenya and Uganda to the north, Rwanda, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the west, and Zambia, Malawi, and Mozambique to the south. The country's eastern borders lie on the Indian Ocean.Tanzania is a state...
. It has been considered the richest of
Late JurassicThe Late Jurassic is the third epoch of the Jurassic Period, and it spans the geologic time from 161.2 ± 4.0 to 145.5 ± 4.0 million years ago , which is preserved in Upper Jurassic strata. In European lithostratigraphy, the name "Malm" indicates rocks of Late Jurassic age...
strataIn geology and related fields, a stratum is a layer of sedimentary rock or soil with internally consistent characteristics that distinguish it from other layers...
in
AfricaAfrica is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
. Continental reconstructions show Tendaguru to have been in the southern hemisphere during the Late Jurassic. Tendaguru is similar to the
Morrison FormationThe Morrison Formation is a distinctive sequence of Late Jurassic sedimentary rock that is found in the western United States, which has been the most fertile source of dinosaur fossils in North America. It is composed of mudstone, sandstone, siltstone and limestone and is light grey, greenish...
except in its Marine Interbeds. The dinosaur life is also similar to that of the Morrison, with the presence of dinosaurs with similar counterparts, e.g.,
BrachiosaurusBrachiosaurus is a genus of sauropod dinosaur from the Jurassic Morrison Formation of North America. It was first described by Elmer S. Riggs in 1903 from fossils found in the Grand River Canyon of western Colorado, in the United States. Riggs named the dinosaur Brachiosaurus altithorax,...
and
StegosaurusStegosaurus is a genus of armored stegosaurid dinosaur. They lived during the Late Jurassic period , some 155 to 150 million years ago in what is now western North America. In 2006, a specimen of Stegosaurus was announced from Portugal, showing that they were present in Europe as well...
in the Morrison, and
GiraffatitanGiraffatitan, meaning "giraffe titan", is a genus of sauropod dinosaur that lived during the late Jurassic Period . It was originally named as an African species of Brachiosaurus...
and
KentrosaurusKentrosaurus is a genus of stegosaurid dinosaur from the Late Jurassic of Tanzania. Its fossils have been found only in the Tendaguru Formation of Tanzania, dated to the Kimmeridgian stage, between about 155.7 ± 4 Ma and 150.8 ± 4 Ma . Apparently, all finds belong to one species, K...
in the Tendaguru.
Excavations
The Tendaguru Beds as a fossil deposit were first discovered in 1906, when
GermanThe Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe. The English term Germans has referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages....
pharmacist, chemical analyst and mining engineer Bernhard Wilhelm Sattler, on his way to a mine south of the Mbemkure River in
German East AfricaGerman East Africa was a German colony in East Africa, which included what are now :Burundi, :Rwanda and Tanganyika . Its area was , nearly three times the size of Germany today....
(today
TanzaniaThe United Republic of Tanzania is a country in East Africa bordered by Kenya and Uganda to the north, Rwanda, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the west, and Zambia, Malawi, and Mozambique to the south. The country's eastern borders lie on the Indian Ocean.Tanzania is a state...
), noticed enormous bones weathering out of the path near the base of a hill. Because of its morphology, the hill was locally known as "steep hill": "tendaguru" in the language of the local Wamwera people. Sattler sent a report of his discoveries that found its way to German palaeontologist
Eberhard FraasEberhard Fraas was a German geologist and paleontologist. He worked as a curator at the Stuttgarter Naturaliensammlung and discovered the dinosaurs of the Tendaguru formation in then German East Africa ....
, then on a round trip through Africa, who visited the site in 1907 and with the aid of Sattler recovered two partial skeletons of enormous size. The material was transported to Fraas' institution, the Royal Natural History Collection in
StuttgartStuttgart is the capital of the state of Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. The sixth-largest city in Germany, Stuttgart has a population of 600,038 while the metropolitan area has a population of 5.3 million ....
,
GermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
. Fraas described two species in the badly known genus
GigantosaurusGigantosaurus is a poorly known sauropod dinosaur genus from England. The type species, Gigantosaurus megalonyx, was named and described by Harry Govier Seeley in 1869...
,
G. robustus and
G. africanus (today
JanenschiaJanenschia was a large sauropod from Late Jurassic Africa , and therefore the earliest known titanosaur. Originally thought to be a species of the diplodocid Tornieria/Barosaurus , it was later found to be a distantly related titanosaur. So far, it is only known from Tanzania...
robusta and
BarosaurusBarosaurus ; Greek barys/βαρυς meaning 'heavy' and saurus/σαυρος meaning 'lizard', 'heavy lizard') was a giant, long-tailed, long-necked, plant-eating dinosaur closely related to the more familiar Diplodocus...
africanus, respectively)..
German Tendaguru Expedition
The Museum für Naturkunde Berlin excavated at Tendaguru hill and in the surroundings for four years. From 1909 through 1911,
Werner JanenschWerner Ernst Martin Janensch was a German paleontologist and geologist.Janensch's most famous contributions stemmed from the expedition he led with Edwin Hennig to the Tendaguru Beds in what is now Tanzania...
as expedition leader and Edwin Hennig as assistant directed excavations, while Hans and Ina Reck lead the 1912 field season. Other European participants include Hans von Staff. In the rainy seasons the scientists explored the geology of the colonay German East Africa on long safaris.
Mammals
| mammalss reported from the Tendaguru Formation |
| Genus |
Species |
Location |
Stratigraphic position |
Material |
Notes |
Images |
Allostaffia |
A. aenigmatica |
|
|
Three isolated molars. |
|
|
|
BrancatherulumBrancatherulum is an extinct genus of Late Jurassic mammal from the Tendaguru Formation of Tanzania. It is Based on a single toothless dentary.-See also:* Prehistoric mammal** List of prehistoric mammals...
|
B. tendagurense |
|
|
Dentary without teeth. |
|
|
|
Tendagurodon |
T. janenschi |
|
|
Single tooth. |
|
|
|
Tendagurutherium |
T. dietrichi |
|
|
Partial dentary with damaged last molar. |
|
|
|
Ornithischians
| Ornithischians reported from the Tendaguru Formation |
| Genus |
Species |
Location |
Stratigraphic position |
Material |
Notes |
Images |
DysalotosaurusDysalotosaurus is a genus of herbivorous iguanodontian dinosaur. It was a dryosaurid iguanodontian, and its fossils have been found in late Kimmeridgian age-rocks of the Tendaguru Formation, Tanzania. The type species of Dysalotosaurus is D. lettowvorbecki. Dysalotosaurus was named by Virchow in...
|
D. lettowvorbecki |
|
|
"Large number of mostly disassociated cranial and postcranial elements." |
|
|
KentrosaurusKentrosaurus is a genus of stegosaurid dinosaur from the Late Jurassic of Tanzania. Its fossils have been found only in the Tendaguru Formation of Tanzania, dated to the Kimmeridgian stage, between about 155.7 ± 4 Ma and 150.8 ± 4 Ma . Apparently, all finds belong to one species, K...
|
K. aethiopicus |
|
|
"[Two] composite mounted skeletons, [four] braincases, [seven] sacra, more than [seventy] femora, approximately 25 isolated elements, juvenile to adult." |
|
Pterosaurs
| Pterosaurss reported from the Tendaguru Formation |
| Genus |
Species |
Location |
Stratigraphic position |
Material |
Notes |
Images |
?Indeterminate archaeopterodactyloid |
|
|
|
Humerus. |
|
|
Indeterminate azhdarchid |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Indeterminate dsungaripteroidDsungaripteroidea is a group of pterosaurs within the suborder Pterodactyloidea.-Classification:Listing of families and genera after Unwin 2006 unless otherwise noted.* Superfamily Dsungaripteroidea** Herbstosaurus** Kepodactylus...
|
|
|
|
Humerus. |
|
|
PterodactylusPterodactylus is a genus of pterosaurs, whose members are popularly known as pterodactyls. It was the first to be named and identified as a flying reptile...
|
P. maximus |
|
|
|
Later determined to be an indeterminate pterodactyloid. |
|
P. brancai |
|
|
|
Later determined to be an indeterminate dsungaripteroid. |
|
P. arningi |
|
|
|
Later determined to be an indeterminate pterosaur. |
|
RhamphorhynchusRhamphorynchus may refer to:*Rhamphorhynchus, a genus of pterosaur*Rhamphorhynchus, a former monotypic genus of orchid, containing only the species now called Aspidogyne mendoncae...
|
R. tendagurensis |
|
|
|
Later determined to be an indeterminate "rhamphorhynchoid". |
|
TendaguripterusTendaguripterus was a genus of dsungaripteroid pterodactyloid pterosaur from the Kimmeridgian-Tithonian-age Upper Jurassic Middle Saurian Beds of Tendaguru, Mtwara Region, Tanzania....
|
T. recki |
|
|
A partial mandible with teeth. |
|
|
Sauropods
{| class="wikitable" align="center" width="100%"
|-
! colspan="7" align="center" |
Sauropods reported from the Tendaguru Formation
|-
! Genus
! Species
! Location
! Stratigraphic position
! Material
! width="40%"| Notes
! Images
|-
|
AustralodocusAustralodocus, meaning "southern beam" from the Latin australis "southern" and the Greek dokos/δοκоς "beam", is a sauropod dinosaur that lived during the Late Jurassic period, around 150 million years ago in what was then German East Africa...
|
A. bohetii
|
|
|
Two neck vertebrae
|
| rowspan="99" |
|-
|
BarosaurusBarosaurus ; Greek barys/βαρυς meaning 'heavy' and saurus/σαυρος meaning 'lizard', 'heavy lizard') was a giant, long-tailed, long-necked, plant-eating dinosaur closely related to the more familiar Diplodocus...
|
B. gracilis
|
|
|
|
|-
| rowspan="2" style="background:#f3e9f3;" |
BrachiosaurusBrachiosaurus is a genus of sauropod dinosaur from the Jurassic Morrison Formation of North America. It was first described by Elmer S. Riggs in 1903 from fossils found in the Grand River Canyon of western Colorado, in the United States. Riggs named the dinosaur Brachiosaurus altithorax,...
|style="background:#fbdddb;" |
B. brancai
|style="background:#fbdddb;" |
|style="background:#fbdddb;" |
|style="background:#fbdddb;" |
"[Five] partial skeletons, more than [three] skulls, [and] isolated limb elements."
|style="background:#fbdddb;" |
B. brancai was distinct enough from the non-Tendaguru
Brachiosaurus type species
B. altithorax that it was moved to its own genus,
Giraffatitan.
|-
|style="background:#E6E6E6;"|
B. fraasi
|style="background:#E6E6E6;"|
|style="background:#E6E6E6;"|
|style="background:#E6E6E6;"|
|style="background:#E6E6E6;"|
Remains attributed to
B. fraasi were later referred to
B. brancai, and thus now
Giraffatitan.
The
Tendaguru Beds are a fossil-rich
formationThis is a list of rock formations that include isolated, scenic, or spectacular surface rock outcrops. These formations are usually the result of weathering and erosion sculpting the existing rock...
in
TanzaniaThe United Republic of Tanzania is a country in East Africa bordered by Kenya and Uganda to the north, Rwanda, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the west, and Zambia, Malawi, and Mozambique to the south. The country's eastern borders lie on the Indian Ocean.Tanzania is a state...
. It has been considered the richest of
Late JurassicThe Late Jurassic is the third epoch of the Jurassic Period, and it spans the geologic time from 161.2 ± 4.0 to 145.5 ± 4.0 million years ago , which is preserved in Upper Jurassic strata. In European lithostratigraphy, the name "Malm" indicates rocks of Late Jurassic age...
strataIn geology and related fields, a stratum is a layer of sedimentary rock or soil with internally consistent characteristics that distinguish it from other layers...
in
AfricaAfrica is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
. Continental reconstructions show Tendaguru to have been in the southern hemisphere during the Late Jurassic. Tendaguru is similar to the
Morrison FormationThe Morrison Formation is a distinctive sequence of Late Jurassic sedimentary rock that is found in the western United States, which has been the most fertile source of dinosaur fossils in North America. It is composed of mudstone, sandstone, siltstone and limestone and is light grey, greenish...
except in its Marine Interbeds. The dinosaur life is also similar to that of the Morrison, with the presence of dinosaurs with similar counterparts, e.g.,
BrachiosaurusBrachiosaurus is a genus of sauropod dinosaur from the Jurassic Morrison Formation of North America. It was first described by Elmer S. Riggs in 1903 from fossils found in the Grand River Canyon of western Colorado, in the United States. Riggs named the dinosaur Brachiosaurus altithorax,...
and
StegosaurusStegosaurus is a genus of armored stegosaurid dinosaur. They lived during the Late Jurassic period , some 155 to 150 million years ago in what is now western North America. In 2006, a specimen of Stegosaurus was announced from Portugal, showing that they were present in Europe as well...
in the Morrison, and
GiraffatitanGiraffatitan, meaning "giraffe titan", is a genus of sauropod dinosaur that lived during the late Jurassic Period . It was originally named as an African species of Brachiosaurus...
and
KentrosaurusKentrosaurus is a genus of stegosaurid dinosaur from the Late Jurassic of Tanzania. Its fossils have been found only in the Tendaguru Formation of Tanzania, dated to the Kimmeridgian stage, between about 155.7 ± 4 Ma and 150.8 ± 4 Ma . Apparently, all finds belong to one species, K...
in the Tendaguru.
Excavations
The Tendaguru Beds as a fossil deposit were first discovered in 1906, when
GermanThe Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe. The English term Germans has referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages....
pharmacist, chemical analyst and mining engineer Bernhard Wilhelm Sattler, on his way to a mine south of the Mbemkure River in
German East AfricaGerman East Africa was a German colony in East Africa, which included what are now :Burundi, :Rwanda and Tanganyika . Its area was , nearly three times the size of Germany today....
(today
TanzaniaThe United Republic of Tanzania is a country in East Africa bordered by Kenya and Uganda to the north, Rwanda, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the west, and Zambia, Malawi, and Mozambique to the south. The country's eastern borders lie on the Indian Ocean.Tanzania is a state...
), noticed enormous bones weathering out of the path near the base of a hill.
[Maier , G. (2003).] Because of its morphology, the hill was locally known as "steep hill": "tendaguru" in the language of the local Wamwera people. Sattler sent a report of his discoveries that found its way to German palaeontologist
Eberhard FraasEberhard Fraas was a German geologist and paleontologist. He worked as a curator at the Stuttgarter Naturaliensammlung and discovered the dinosaurs of the Tendaguru formation in then German East Africa ....
, then on a round trip through Africa, who visited the site in 1907 and with the aid of Sattler recovered two partial skeletons of enormous size.
[Fraas, E. (1908). "Ostafrikanische Dinosaurier". Palaeontolographica 55:105-144 [German]] The material was transported to Fraas' institution, the Royal Natural History Collection in
StuttgartStuttgart is the capital of the state of Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. The sixth-largest city in Germany, Stuttgart has a population of 600,038 while the metropolitan area has a population of 5.3 million ....
,
GermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
. Fraas described two species in the badly known genus
GigantosaurusGigantosaurus is a poorly known sauropod dinosaur genus from England. The type species, Gigantosaurus megalonyx, was named and described by Harry Govier Seeley in 1869...
,
G. robustus and
G. africanus (today
JanenschiaJanenschia was a large sauropod from Late Jurassic Africa , and therefore the earliest known titanosaur. Originally thought to be a species of the diplodocid Tornieria/Barosaurus , it was later found to be a distantly related titanosaur. So far, it is only known from Tanzania...
robusta and
BarosaurusBarosaurus ; Greek barys/βαρυς meaning 'heavy' and saurus/σαυρος meaning 'lizard', 'heavy lizard') was a giant, long-tailed, long-necked, plant-eating dinosaur closely related to the more familiar Diplodocus...
africanus, respectively).
[.]
German Tendaguru Expedition
The Museum für Naturkunde Berlin excavated at Tendaguru hill and in the surroundings for four years. From 1909 through 1911, Werner JanenschWerner Ernst Martin Janensch was a German paleontologist and geologist.Janensch's most famous contributions stemmed from the expedition he led with Edwin Hennig to the Tendaguru Beds in what is now Tanzania...
as expedition leader and Edwin Hennig as assistant directed excavations, while Hans and Ina Reck lead the 1912 field season. Other European participants include Hans von Staff. In the rainy seasons the scientists explored the geology of the colonay German East Africa on long safaris.
Vertebrate paleofauna
Possible dinosaur eggs have been recovered from the formation.[Weishampel, David B; et al. (2004). "Dinosaur distribution (Late Jurassic, Africa)." In: Weishampel, David B.; Dodson, Peter; and Osmólska, Halszka (eds.): The Dinosauria, 2nd, Berkeley: University of California Press. p. 552. ISBN 0-520-24209-2.]
Mammals
{| class="wikitable" align="center" width="100%"
|-
! colspan="7" align="center" |mammalss reported from the Tendaguru Formation
|-
! Genus
! Species
! Location
! Stratigraphic position
! Material
! Notes
! Images
|-
|
Allostaffia
|
A. aenigmatica
|
|
|
Three isolated molars.
|
|
|
|-
|
BrancatherulumBrancatherulum is an extinct genus of Late Jurassic mammal from the Tendaguru Formation of Tanzania. It is Based on a single toothless dentary.-See also:* Prehistoric mammal** List of prehistoric mammals...
|
B. tendagurense
|
|
|
Dentary without teeth.
|
|
|
|-
|
Tendagurodon
|
T. janenschi
|
|
|
Single tooth.
|
|
|
|-
|
Tendagurutherium
|
T. dietrichi
|
|
|
Partial dentary with damaged last molar.
|
|
|
|-
|}
Ornithischians
{| class="wikitable" align="center" width="100%"
|-
! colspan="7" align="center" |Ornithischians reported from the Tendaguru Formation
|-
! Genus
! Species
! Location
! Stratigraphic position
! Material
! Notes
! Images
|-
|
DysalotosaurusDysalotosaurus is a genus of herbivorous iguanodontian dinosaur. It was a dryosaurid iguanodontian, and its fossils have been found in late Kimmeridgian age-rocks of the Tendaguru Formation, Tanzania. The type species of Dysalotosaurus is D. lettowvorbecki. Dysalotosaurus was named by Virchow in...
|
D. lettowvorbecki
|
|
|
"Large number of mostly disassociated cranial and postcranial elements."["Table 19.1," in Weishampel, et al. (2004). Page 414.]
|
| rowspan="99" |
|-
|
KentrosaurusKentrosaurus is a genus of stegosaurid dinosaur from the Late Jurassic of Tanzania. Its fossils have been found only in the Tendaguru Formation of Tanzania, dated to the Kimmeridgian stage, between about 155.7 ± 4 Ma and 150.8 ± 4 Ma . Apparently, all finds belong to one species, K...
|
K. aethiopicus
|
|
|
"[Two] composite mounted skeletons, [four] braincases, [seven] sacra, more than [seventy] femora, approximately 25 isolated elements, juvenile to adult."["Table 16.1," in Weishampel, et al. (2004). Page 344.]
|
|-
|}
Pterosaurs
{| class="wikitable" align="center" width="100%"
|-
! colspan="7" align="center" |Pterosaurss reported from the Tendaguru Formation
|-
! Genus
! Species
! Location
! Stratigraphic position
! Material
! Notes
! Images
|-
|
?Indeterminate archaeopterodactyloid
|
|
|
|Humerus.[Costa F. R., Kellner A. W. A., 2009, On two pterosaur humeri from the Tendaguru beds]
(Upper Jurassic, Tanzania), Anais da Academia Brasileira de Ciências, vol.81 no.4 Rio de
Janeiro Dec. 2009
|
|
|-
|
Indeterminate azhdarchid
|
|
|
|
|
|
|-
|
Indeterminate dsungaripteroidDsungaripteroidea is a group of pterosaurs within the suborder Pterodactyloidea.-Classification:Listing of families and genera after Unwin 2006 unless otherwise noted.* Superfamily Dsungaripteroidea** Herbstosaurus** Kepodactylus...
|
|
|
|Humerus.
|
|
|-
| rowspan="3" style="background:#f3e9f3;" |
PterodactylusPterodactylus is a genus of pterosaurs, whose members are popularly known as pterodactyls. It was the first to be named and identified as a flying reptile...
|style="background:#E6E6E6;"|
P. maximus
|style="background:#E6E6E6;"|
|style="background:#E6E6E6;"|
|style="background:#E6E6E6;"|
|style="background:#E6E6E6;"|
Later determined to be an indeterminate pterodactyloid.
|style="background:#E6E6E6;"|
|-
|style="background:#E6E6E6;"|
P. brancai
|style="background:#E6E6E6;"|
|style="background:#E6E6E6;"|
|style="background:#E6E6E6;"|
|style="background:#E6E6E6;"|
Later determined to be an indeterminate dsungaripteroid.
|style="background:#E6E6E6;"|
|-
|style="background:#E6E6E6;"|
P. arningi
|style="background:#E6E6E6;"|
|style="background:#E6E6E6;"|
|style="background:#E6E6E6;"|
|style="background:#E6E6E6;"|
Later determined to be an indeterminate pterosaur.
|style="background:#E6E6E6;"|
|-
|style="background:#f3e9f3;" |
RhamphorhynchusRhamphorynchus may refer to:*Rhamphorhynchus, a genus of pterosaur*Rhamphorhynchus, a former monotypic genus of orchid, containing only the species now called Aspidogyne mendoncae...
|style="background:#E6E6E6;"|
R. tendagurensis
|style="background:#E6E6E6;"|
|style="background:#E6E6E6;"|
|style="background:#E6E6E6;"|
|style="background:#E6E6E6;"|
Later determined to be an indeterminate "rhamphorhynchoid".
|style="background:#E6E6E6;"|
|-
|
TendaguripterusTendaguripterus was a genus of dsungaripteroid pterodactyloid pterosaur from the Kimmeridgian-Tithonian-age Upper Jurassic Middle Saurian Beds of Tendaguru, Mtwara Region, Tanzania....
[Barrett, P.M., Butler, R.J., Edwards, N.P., & Milner, A.R. Pterosaur distribution in time and space: an atlas. p61-107. in Flugsaurier: Pterosaur papers in honour of Peter Wellnhofer. 2008. Hone, D.W.E., and Buffetaut, E. (eds). Zitteliana B, 28. 264pp.http://epub.ub.uni-muenchen.de/12007/1/zitteliana_2008_b28_05.pdf]
|
T. recki
|
|
|
A partial mandible with teeth.
|
| rowspan="99" |
|-
|}
Sauropods
{| class="wikitable" align="center" width="100%"
|-
! colspan="7" align="center" |Sauropods reported from the Tendaguru Formation
|-
! Genus
! Species
! Location
! Stratigraphic position
! Material
! width="40%"| Notes
! Images
|-
|
AustralodocusAustralodocus, meaning "southern beam" from the Latin australis "southern" and the Greek dokos/δοκоς "beam", is a sauropod dinosaur that lived during the Late Jurassic period, around 150 million years ago in what was then German East Africa...
|
A. bohetii
|
|
|
Two neck vertebrae
|
| rowspan="99" |
|-
|
BarosaurusBarosaurus ; Greek barys/βαρυς meaning 'heavy' and saurus/σαυρος meaning 'lizard', 'heavy lizard') was a giant, long-tailed, long-necked, plant-eating dinosaur closely related to the more familiar Diplodocus...
|
B. gracilis
|
|
|
|
|-
| rowspan="2" style="background:#f3e9f3;" |
BrachiosaurusBrachiosaurus is a genus of sauropod dinosaur from the Jurassic Morrison Formation of North America. It was first described by Elmer S. Riggs in 1903 from fossils found in the Grand River Canyon of western Colorado, in the United States. Riggs named the dinosaur Brachiosaurus altithorax,...
|style="background:#fbdddb;" |
B. brancai
|style="background:#fbdddb;" |
|style="background:#fbdddb;" |
|style="background:#fbdddb;" |
"[Five] partial skeletons, more than [three] skulls, [and] isolated limb elements."["Table 13.1," in Weishampel, et al. (2004). Page 267.]
|style="background:#fbdddb;" |
B. brancai was distinct enough from the non-Tendaguru Brachiosaurus type species B. altithorax that it was moved to its own genus, Giraffatitan.
|-
|style="background:#E6E6E6;"|
B. fraasi
|style="background:#E6E6E6;"|
|style="background:#E6E6E6;"|
|style="background:#E6E6E6;"|
|style="background:#E6E6E6;"|
Remains attributed to B. fraasi were later referred to B. brancai, and thus now Giraffatitan.
The Tendaguru Beds are a fossil-rich formationThis is a list of rock formations that include isolated, scenic, or spectacular surface rock outcrops. These formations are usually the result of weathering and erosion sculpting the existing rock...
in TanzaniaThe United Republic of Tanzania is a country in East Africa bordered by Kenya and Uganda to the north, Rwanda, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the west, and Zambia, Malawi, and Mozambique to the south. The country's eastern borders lie on the Indian Ocean.Tanzania is a state...
. It has been considered the richest of Late JurassicThe Late Jurassic is the third epoch of the Jurassic Period, and it spans the geologic time from 161.2 ± 4.0 to 145.5 ± 4.0 million years ago , which is preserved in Upper Jurassic strata. In European lithostratigraphy, the name "Malm" indicates rocks of Late Jurassic age...
strataIn geology and related fields, a stratum is a layer of sedimentary rock or soil with internally consistent characteristics that distinguish it from other layers...
in AfricaAfrica is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
. Continental reconstructions show Tendaguru to have been in the southern hemisphere during the Late Jurassic. Tendaguru is similar to the Morrison FormationThe Morrison Formation is a distinctive sequence of Late Jurassic sedimentary rock that is found in the western United States, which has been the most fertile source of dinosaur fossils in North America. It is composed of mudstone, sandstone, siltstone and limestone and is light grey, greenish...
except in its Marine Interbeds. The dinosaur life is also similar to that of the Morrison, with the presence of dinosaurs with similar counterparts, e.g., BrachiosaurusBrachiosaurus is a genus of sauropod dinosaur from the Jurassic Morrison Formation of North America. It was first described by Elmer S. Riggs in 1903 from fossils found in the Grand River Canyon of western Colorado, in the United States. Riggs named the dinosaur Brachiosaurus altithorax,...
and StegosaurusStegosaurus is a genus of armored stegosaurid dinosaur. They lived during the Late Jurassic period , some 155 to 150 million years ago in what is now western North America. In 2006, a specimen of Stegosaurus was announced from Portugal, showing that they were present in Europe as well...
in the Morrison, and GiraffatitanGiraffatitan, meaning "giraffe titan", is a genus of sauropod dinosaur that lived during the late Jurassic Period . It was originally named as an African species of Brachiosaurus...
and KentrosaurusKentrosaurus is a genus of stegosaurid dinosaur from the Late Jurassic of Tanzania. Its fossils have been found only in the Tendaguru Formation of Tanzania, dated to the Kimmeridgian stage, between about 155.7 ± 4 Ma and 150.8 ± 4 Ma . Apparently, all finds belong to one species, K...
in the Tendaguru.
Excavations
The Tendaguru Beds as a fossil deposit were first discovered in 1906, when GermanThe Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe. The English term Germans has referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages....
pharmacist, chemical analyst and mining engineer Bernhard Wilhelm Sattler, on his way to a mine south of the Mbemkure River in German East AfricaGerman East Africa was a German colony in East Africa, which included what are now :Burundi, :Rwanda and Tanganyika . Its area was , nearly three times the size of Germany today....
(today TanzaniaThe United Republic of Tanzania is a country in East Africa bordered by Kenya and Uganda to the north, Rwanda, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the west, and Zambia, Malawi, and Mozambique to the south. The country's eastern borders lie on the Indian Ocean.Tanzania is a state...
), noticed enormous bones weathering out of the path near the base of a hill.[Maier , G. (2003).] Because of its morphology, the hill was locally known as "steep hill": "tendaguru" in the language of the local Wamwera people. Sattler sent a report of his discoveries that found its way to German palaeontologist Eberhard FraasEberhard Fraas was a German geologist and paleontologist. He worked as a curator at the Stuttgarter Naturaliensammlung and discovered the dinosaurs of the Tendaguru formation in then German East Africa ....
, then on a round trip through Africa, who visited the site in 1907 and with the aid of Sattler recovered two partial skeletons of enormous size.[Fraas, E. (1908). "Ostafrikanische Dinosaurier". Palaeontolographica 55:105-144 [German]] The material was transported to Fraas' institution, the Royal Natural History Collection in StuttgartStuttgart is the capital of the state of Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. The sixth-largest city in Germany, Stuttgart has a population of 600,038 while the metropolitan area has a population of 5.3 million ....
, GermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
. Fraas described two species in the badly known genus GigantosaurusGigantosaurus is a poorly known sauropod dinosaur genus from England. The type species, Gigantosaurus megalonyx, was named and described by Harry Govier Seeley in 1869...
, G. robustus and G. africanus (today JanenschiaJanenschia was a large sauropod from Late Jurassic Africa , and therefore the earliest known titanosaur. Originally thought to be a species of the diplodocid Tornieria/Barosaurus , it was later found to be a distantly related titanosaur. So far, it is only known from Tanzania...
robusta and BarosaurusBarosaurus ; Greek barys/βαρυς meaning 'heavy' and saurus/σαυρος meaning 'lizard', 'heavy lizard') was a giant, long-tailed, long-necked, plant-eating dinosaur closely related to the more familiar Diplodocus...
africanus, respectively).[.]
German Tendaguru Expedition
The Museum für Naturkunde Berlin excavated at Tendaguru hill and in the surroundings for four years. From 1909 through 1911, Werner JanenschWerner Ernst Martin Janensch was a German paleontologist and geologist.Janensch's most famous contributions stemmed from the expedition he led with Edwin Hennig to the Tendaguru Beds in what is now Tanzania...
as expedition leader and Edwin Hennig as assistant directed excavations, while Hans and Ina Reck lead the 1912 field season. Other European participants include Hans von Staff. In the rainy seasons the scientists explored the geology of the colonay German East Africa on long safaris.
Vertebrate paleofauna
Possible dinosaur eggs have been recovered from the formation.[Weishampel, David B; et al. (2004). "Dinosaur distribution (Late Jurassic, Africa)." In: Weishampel, David B.; Dodson, Peter; and Osmólska, Halszka (eds.): The Dinosauria, 2nd, Berkeley: University of California Press. p. 552. ISBN 0-520-24209-2.]
Mammals
{| class="wikitable" align="center" width="100%"
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! colspan="7" align="center" |mammalss reported from the Tendaguru Formation
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! Genus
! Species
! Location
! Stratigraphic position
! Material
! Notes
! Images
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Allostaffia
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A. aenigmatica
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Three isolated molars.
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BrancatherulumBrancatherulum is an extinct genus of Late Jurassic mammal from the Tendaguru Formation of Tanzania. It is Based on a single toothless dentary.-See also:* Prehistoric mammal** List of prehistoric mammals...
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B. tendagurense
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Dentary without teeth.
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Tendagurodon
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T. janenschi
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Single tooth.
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Tendagurutherium
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T. dietrichi
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Partial dentary with damaged last molar.
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Ornithischians
{| class="wikitable" align="center" width="100%"
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! colspan="7" align="center" |Ornithischians reported from the Tendaguru Formation
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! Genus
! Species
! Location
! Stratigraphic position
! Material
! Notes
! Images
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DysalotosaurusDysalotosaurus is a genus of herbivorous iguanodontian dinosaur. It was a dryosaurid iguanodontian, and its fossils have been found in late Kimmeridgian age-rocks of the Tendaguru Formation, Tanzania. The type species of Dysalotosaurus is D. lettowvorbecki. Dysalotosaurus was named by Virchow in...
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D. lettowvorbecki
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"Large number of mostly disassociated cranial and postcranial elements."["Table 19.1," in Weishampel, et al. (2004). Page 414.]
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KentrosaurusKentrosaurus is a genus of stegosaurid dinosaur from the Late Jurassic of Tanzania. Its fossils have been found only in the Tendaguru Formation of Tanzania, dated to the Kimmeridgian stage, between about 155.7 ± 4 Ma and 150.8 ± 4 Ma . Apparently, all finds belong to one species, K...
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K. aethiopicus
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"[Two] composite mounted skeletons, [four] braincases, [seven] sacra, more than [seventy] femora, approximately 25 isolated elements, juvenile to adult."["Table 16.1," in Weishampel, et al. (2004). Page 344.]
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Pterosaurs
{| class="wikitable" align="center" width="100%"
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! colspan="7" align="center" |Pterosaurss reported from the Tendaguru Formation
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! Genus
! Species
! Location
! Stratigraphic position
! Material
! Notes
! Images
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?Indeterminate archaeopterodactyloid
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|Humerus.[Costa F. R., Kellner A. W. A., 2009, On two pterosaur humeri from the Tendaguru beds]
(Upper Jurassic, Tanzania), Anais da Academia Brasileira de Ciências, vol.81 no.4 Rio de
Janeiro Dec. 2009
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Indeterminate azhdarchid
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Indeterminate dsungaripteroidDsungaripteroidea is a group of pterosaurs within the suborder Pterodactyloidea.-Classification:Listing of families and genera after Unwin 2006 unless otherwise noted.* Superfamily Dsungaripteroidea** Herbstosaurus** Kepodactylus...
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|Humerus.
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PterodactylusPterodactylus is a genus of pterosaurs, whose members are popularly known as pterodactyls. It was the first to be named and identified as a flying reptile...
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P. maximus
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Later determined to be an indeterminate pterodactyloid.
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P. brancai
|style="background:#E6E6E6;"|
|style="background:#E6E6E6;"|
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Later determined to be an indeterminate dsungaripteroid.
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|style="background:#E6E6E6;"|
P. arningi
|style="background:#E6E6E6;"|
|style="background:#E6E6E6;"|
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Later determined to be an indeterminate pterosaur.
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RhamphorhynchusRhamphorynchus may refer to:*Rhamphorhynchus, a genus of pterosaur*Rhamphorhynchus, a former monotypic genus of orchid, containing only the species now called Aspidogyne mendoncae...
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R. tendagurensis
|style="background:#E6E6E6;"|
|style="background:#E6E6E6;"|
|style="background:#E6E6E6;"|
|style="background:#E6E6E6;"|
Later determined to be an indeterminate "rhamphorhynchoid".
|style="background:#E6E6E6;"|
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TendaguripterusTendaguripterus was a genus of dsungaripteroid pterodactyloid pterosaur from the Kimmeridgian-Tithonian-age Upper Jurassic Middle Saurian Beds of Tendaguru, Mtwara Region, Tanzania....
[Barrett, P.M., Butler, R.J., Edwards, N.P., & Milner, A.R. Pterosaur distribution in time and space: an atlas. p61-107. in Flugsaurier: Pterosaur papers in honour of Peter Wellnhofer. 2008. Hone, D.W.E., and Buffetaut, E. (eds). Zitteliana B, 28. 264pp.http://epub.ub.uni-muenchen.de/12007/1/zitteliana_2008_b28_05.pdf]
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T. recki
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A partial mandible with teeth.
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Sauropods
{| class="wikitable" align="center" width="100%"
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! colspan="7" align="center" |Sauropods reported from the Tendaguru Formation
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! Genus
! Species
! Location
! Stratigraphic position
! Material
! width="40%"| Notes
! Images
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AustralodocusAustralodocus, meaning "southern beam" from the Latin australis "southern" and the Greek dokos/δοκоς "beam", is a sauropod dinosaur that lived during the Late Jurassic period, around 150 million years ago in what was then German East Africa...
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A. bohetii
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Two neck vertebrae
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| rowspan="99" |
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BarosaurusBarosaurus ; Greek barys/βαρυς meaning 'heavy' and saurus/σαυρος meaning 'lizard', 'heavy lizard') was a giant, long-tailed, long-necked, plant-eating dinosaur closely related to the more familiar Diplodocus...
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B. gracilis
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| rowspan="2" style="background:#f3e9f3;" |
BrachiosaurusBrachiosaurus is a genus of sauropod dinosaur from the Jurassic Morrison Formation of North America. It was first described by Elmer S. Riggs in 1903 from fossils found in the Grand River Canyon of western Colorado, in the United States. Riggs named the dinosaur Brachiosaurus altithorax,...
|style="background:#fbdddb;" |
B. brancai
|style="background:#fbdddb;" |
|style="background:#fbdddb;" |
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"[Five] partial skeletons, more than [three] skulls, [and] isolated limb elements."["Table 13.1," in Weishampel, et al. (2004). Page 267.]
|style="background:#fbdddb;" |
B. brancai was distinct enough from the non-Tendaguru Brachiosaurus type species B. altithorax that it was moved to its own genus, Giraffatitan.
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|style="background:#E6E6E6;"|
B. fraasi
|style="background:#E6E6E6;"|
|style="background:#E6E6E6;"|
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Remains attributed to B. fraasi were later referred to B. brancai, and thus now Giraffatitan.
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| rowspan="2" |
DicraeosaurusDicraeosaurus is a genus of small diplodocoid sauropod dinosaur. It was named for the spines on the back of the neck. The first fossil was described by paleontologist Werner Janensch in 1914.Unlike most diplodocoids, Dicraeosaurus had a large head with a relatively short and wide neck...
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D. hansemanni
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"Skeleton lacking skull and forelimbs, [two] partial skeletons, isolated vertebrae, and limb elements."["Table 13.1," in Weishampel, et al. (2004). Page 264.]
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D. sattleri
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"[Two] partial skeletons without skulls, isolated postcranial remains."["Table 13.1," in Weishampel, et al. (2004). Page 264.]
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GiraffatitanGiraffatitan, meaning "giraffe titan", is a genus of sauropod dinosaur that lived during the late Jurassic Period . It was originally named as an African species of Brachiosaurus...
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G. brancai
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The new genus GiraffatitanGiraffatitan, meaning "giraffe titan", is a genus of sauropod dinosaur that lived during the late Jurassic Period . It was originally named as an African species of Brachiosaurus...
was erected to hold the former Brachiosaurus species, B. brancai after scientists concluded that it was distinct enough from the Brachiosaurus type speciesIn biological nomenclature, a type species is both a concept and a practical system which is used in the classification and nomenclature of animals and plants. The value of a "type species" lies in the fact that it makes clear what is meant by a particular genus name. A type species is the species...
, B. altithorax, to warrant such a reclassification.[Taylor, M.P. (2009). Pp. 787-806.]
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JanenschiaJanenschia was a large sauropod from Late Jurassic Africa , and therefore the earliest known titanosaur. Originally thought to be a species of the diplodocid Tornieria/Barosaurus , it was later found to be a distantly related titanosaur. So far, it is only known from Tanzania...
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J. robusta
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"[Three] hindlimbs, [two] forelimbs, manus, [two] dorsal vertebrae, [and a] caudal series."["Table 13.1," in Weishampel, et al. (2004). Page 268.]
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TendaguriaTendaguria is a genus of sauropod dinosaur from the Late Jurassic of Tanzania.It was a large sauropod from the Tendaguru fossil locality in Tanzania; based on two anterior dorsal vertebrae from Nambango, 15 kilometers southeast of Tendaguru Hill, Tanzania, probably in the Upper...
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T. tanzaniensis
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"[Two] associated cranial dorsal vertebrae."["Table 13.1," in Weishampel, et al. (2004). Page 261.]
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TornieriaTornieria is a genus of diplodocid sauropod dinosaur from Late Jurassic of Tanzania. It has a convoluted taxonomic history.-Discovery and naming:...
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T. africanus
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"More than [three] partial skeletons, a few skull elements, [and] many isolated postcranial elements."["Table 13.1," in Weishampel, et al. (2004). Page 265.]
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Theropods
{| class="wikitable" align="center" width="100%"
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! colspan="7" align="center" |Theropods reported from the Tendaguru Formation
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! Genus
! Species
! Location
! Stratigraphic position
! Material
! Notes
! Images
|-
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?AllosaurusAllosaurus is a genus of large theropod dinosaur that lived 155 to 150 million years ago during the late Jurassic period . The name Allosaurus means "different lizard". It is derived from the Greek /allos and /sauros...
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?A. tendagurensis
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A tibia.["Table 4.1," in Weishampel, et al. (2004). Page 75.]
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| rowspan="99" |
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| rowspan="2" |
CeratosaurusCeratosaurus meaning "horned lizard", in reference to the horn on its nose , was a large predatory theropod dinosaur from the Late Jurassic Period , found in the Morrison Formation of North America, in Tanzania and Portugal...
|style="background:#E6E6E6;"|
C. roechlingi
|style="background:#E6E6E6;"|
|style="background:#E6E6E6;"|
|style="background:#E6E6E6;"|
"Quadrate, fibula, caudal vertebrae, astragalus."["Table 3.1," in Weishampel, et al. (2004). Page 50.]
|style="background:#E6E6E6;"|
Remains now considered indeterminate.
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Indeterminate
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ElaphrosaurusElaphrosaurus is a genus of theropod dinosaur from the Kimmeridgian stage of the Late Jurassic of Tanzania. Elaphrosaurus was probably a ceratosaur about 6 meters long. Suggestions that it is a late surviving coelophysoid have been entertained but are generally dismissed. It was first...
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E. bambergi
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"Postcranial skeleton."["Table 3.1," in Weishampel, et al. (2004). Page 48.]
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|style="background:#E6E6E6;"|
Labrosaurus
|style="background:#E6E6E6;"|
L. stechowi
|style="background:#E6E6E6;"|
|style="background:#E6E6E6;"|
|style="background:#E6E6E6;"|
"Isolated teeth."["Table 3.1," in Weishampel, et al. (2004). Page 50.]
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Remains later determined to be an indeterminate species of CeratosaurusCeratosaurus meaning "horned lizard", in reference to the horn on its nose , was a large predatory theropod dinosaur from the Late Jurassic Period , found in the Morrison Formation of North America, in Tanzania and Portugal...
.
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|style="background:#f3e9f3;"|
MegalosaurusMegalosaurus is a genus of large meat-eating theropod dinosaurs of the Middle Jurassic period of Europe...
|style="background:#E6E6E6;"|
M. ingens
|style="background:#E6E6E6;"|
|style="background:#E6E6E6;"|
|style="background:#E6E6E6;"|
"Tooth."["Table 4.1," in Weishampel, et al. (2004). Page 78.]
|style="background:#E6E6E6;"|
Later determined to be an indeterminate theropod.
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See also