2018/09/03 by Philip D. Mannion, Paul Upchurch, Daniela Schwarz +1 · 13 citations
Earth and Planetary Sciences · Environmental Science · #Paleontology and Evolutionary Biology #Ichthyology and Marine Biology #Evolution and Paleontology Studies
paper · doi:10.1093/zoolinnean/zly068
openalex publication_date 2018/09/03 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/19
The Late Jurassic Tendaguru Formation of Tanzania, southeastern Africa, records a diverse and abundant sauropod fauna, including the flagellicaudatan diplodocoids Dicraeosaurus and Tornieria, and the brachiosaurid titanosauriform Giraffatitan. However, the taxonomic affinities of other sympatric sauropod taxa and remains are poorly understood. Here, we critically reassess and redescribe these problematic taxa, and present the largest phylogenetic analysis for sauropods (117 taxa scored for 542 characters) to explore their placement within Eusauropoda. A full re-description of the holotype of Janenschia, and all referable remains, supports its validity and placement as a nonneosauropod eusauropod. New information on the internal pneumatic tissue structure of the anterior dorsal vertebrae of the enigmatic Tendaguria tanzaniensis, coupled with a full re-description, results in its novel placement as a turiasaur. A previously referred caudal sequence cannot be assigned to Janenschia and displays several features that indicate a close relationship with Middle–Late Jurassic East Asian mamenchisaurids. It can be diagnosed by six autapomorphies, and we erect the new taxon Wamweracaudia keranjei n. gen. n. sp. The Tendaguru Formation shares representatives of nearly all sauropod lineages with Middle Jurassic–earliest Cretaceous global faunas, but displays a greater range of diversity than any of those faunas considered individually.