Open Paleo

Australodocus

Remes, 2007 OSS-tra-luh-DOE-kus

From Latin australis meaning 'southern' + Greek dokos (δοκός) meaning 'beam'; overall meaning 'southern beam', referring to its discovery in southern Tanzania.

149.2–143.1 million years ago Tithonian, Late Jurassic
Late Jurassic stages

Australodocus is a genus of sauropod dinosaur that lived during the Late Jurassic period, around 150 million years ago, in what is now Lindi Region, Tanzania. Though initially considered a diplodocid, recent analyses suggest it may instead be a titanosauriform.

Under dispute

Originally described as a diplodocid (Remes, 2007), Australodocus is now regarded as a non-titanosaurian titanosauriform (Whitlock, 2011; Mannion and colleagues, 2019). Mannion and colleagues (2019) recover it as a somphospondylan close to Euhelopodidae under equal weights but within Brachiosauridae under implied weights, and favor a somphospondylan identity.

Diagnosis

  1. Cervical pleurocoel weakly developed (reduced relative to other diplodocids)
  2. Ridge posterolateral to anterior condyle strongly posteroventrally inclined (~20 degrees from vertical)
  3. Anteriorly facing triangular pneumatic cavity ventral to prezygapophysis, enclosed by lateral ramus of centroprezygapophyseal lamina and anteriorly extended prezygodiapophyseal lamina
  4. Prominent prezygapophyseal process pointed, laterally keeled, and extending further anteriorly than the prezygapophysis itself

Species

Australodocus bohetii Remes, 2007

Type species

Named for Boheti bin Amrani, a native crew supervisor and chief preparator who was an important contributor to the German expeditions that first excavated the Tanzanian fossil sites.

Holotype
MB.R.2455 , Museum für Naturkunde, Berlin
Material
Two successive mid-cervical vertebrae (sixth and seventh cervical vertebrae, provisionally).
Horizon
Upper Dinosaur Member, Tendaguru Formation, Tithonian, Late Jurassic , 149.2–143.1 million years ago
Locality
Tendaguru Quarry G, Lindi, Tanzania

References

  1. Remes, K. (2007). A second Gondwanan diplodocid dinosaur from the Upper Jurassic Tendaguru Beds of Tanzania, East Africa. Palaeontology 50(3): 653-667. Wiley. doi:10.1111/j.1475-4983.2007.00652.x remes2007a
  2. Jones, B. (2026). The Princeton Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs: Sauropods. Princeton University Press.

    Source of the hip height estimate.

    jones2026b
  3. Whitlock, J. A. (2011). A phylogenetic analysis of Diplodocoidea (Saurischia: Sauropoda). Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 161(4): 872-915. doi:10.1111/j.1096-3642.2010.00665.x

    Diplodocoidea phylogenetic analysis recovering Australodocus outside Diplodocidae as non-titanosaurian titanosauriform.

    whitlock2011a
  4. Mannion, P. D.; Upchurch, P.; Schwarz, D.; Wings, O. (2019). Taxonomic affinities of the putative titanosaurs from the Late Jurassic Tendaguru Formation of Tanzania: phylogenetic and biogeographic implications for eusauropod dinosaur evolution. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 185(3): 784-909. Oxford University Press (OUP). doi:10.1093/zoolinnean/zly068

    Reassessed putative titanosaurs, recovering Australodocus as a non-titanosaurian titanosauriform.

    mannion2019a