Open Paleo

Tendaguria

Bonaparte et al., 2000 TEN-duh-GURE-ee-uh /ˌtɛndəˈɡjʊəriə/

Named for Tendaguru Hill in Tanzania, the site of major German paleontological expeditions from 1909 to 1912.

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

Tendaguria is a genus of herbivorous sauropod dinosaur from the Late Jurassic of Lindi Region, Tanzania.

Diagnosis

  1. Dorsal surface of each anterior dorsal diapophysis excavated by two fossae, one posterolateral to the prezygapophyses along the anterior half of the diapophysis and one directly posterior to the prezygapophyses
  2. Prespinal midline ridge developed on the anteriormost dorsal neural spines

Species

Tendaguria tanzaniensis Bonaparte et al., 2000

Type species

Named after Tanzania, the country where the holotype vertebrae were collected.

Holotype
MB.R.2092.1, MB.R.2092.2 , Museum für Naturkunde, Berlin
Material
Two associated anterior dorsal vertebrae
Horizon
Upper Dinosaur Member, Tendaguru Formation, Tithonian, Late Jurassic , 149.2–143.1 million years ago
Locality
Nambango (site NB), Lindi, Tanzania Mannion and colleagues (2019) place the holotype in the Upper Dinosaur Member only "probably", the member resting on their correlation of the Nambango site rather than on a measured section through it.

References

  1. Bonaparte, J. F.; Heinrich, W. D.; Wild, R. (2000). Review of Janenschia Wild, with the description of a new sauropod from the Tendaguru beds of Tanzania and a discussion on the systematic value of procoelous caudal vertebrae in the sauropoda. Palaeontographica Abteilung A 256(1-3): 25-76. Schweizerbart. doi:10.1127/pala/256/2000/25 bonaparte2000a
  2. 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

    Full redescription of the holotypic anterior dorsal vertebrae of Tendaguria tanzaniensis, recovering it as a turiasaur and sister taxon of Moabosaurus.

    mannion2019a
  3. Jones, B. (2026). The Princeton Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs: Sauropods. Princeton University Press.

    Source of the body length, mass, and hip height estimates.

    jones2026b