RE: Amazing Tendaguru and the most prolific localities in the world

["Thomas R. Holtz, Jr." <tholtz@geol.umd.edu>]

> From: owner-dinosaur@usc.edu [mailto:owner-dinosaur@usc.edu]On Behalf Of
> Mike Taylor
>
> The whole group of non-_brancai_ Tendaguru sauropods is pretty messy
> taxonomically, and I am not sure any two workers mean quite the same
> thing by all the names as each other.  At SVPCA 2004, Khristan Remes
> claimed that "Barosaurus" _africanus_ is generically distinct from all
> other sauropods, though closer to _Barosaurus_ than to anything else,
> and advocated the use of the "available name" _Tornieria_ -- a re-use
> which I am not sure clarifies matters.  I'm not aware that he's got a
> paper out on this -- certianly nothing is referenced from this
> home-page at
>       http://userpage.fu-berlin.de/~palaeont/vertebrata/kristian_en.htm
> I hope that when he publishes, he'll include a revision of _all_ those
> problematic African sauropod names.

Upchurch et al. (2004), in Dinosauria II, advocate the use of _Tornieria_ for 
"Barosaurus" _africanus_.  To complete their Tendaguru
sauropod listings, they use _Brachiosaurus brancai_, _Janenschia robusta_ 
(basal titanosaurian), _Tendaguria tananiensis_ (weird but
not  certain if it is basal sauropod or neosauropod), _Dicraeosaurus 
hansemanni_, _D. sattleri_.  So, like the Morrison, you
couldn't swing a dead coelurosaur without hitting another damn sauropod...

                Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.
                Vertebrate Paleontologist
Department of Geology           Director, Earth, Life & Time Program
University of Maryland          College Park Scholars
        Mailing Address:
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