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TORNIERIA

a plant-eating diplodocid sauropod dinosaur from the Late Jurassic of Tanzania.
Pronunciation: TOR-nee-EHR-ee-uh
Meaning: for Gustav Tornier
Author/s: Sternfeld (1911)
Synonyms: See below
First Discovery: Lindi, Tanzania
Discovery Chart Position: #102

Tornieria africana

(for Tornier and Africa)Etymology
Tornieria is named in honour of German palaeontologist Gustav Tornier.
The species epithet, africana, refers to its African discovery.
Synonyms
Gigantosaurus africanus (Fraas, 1908)
Tornieria africanus (Sternfeld, 1911)
Barosaurus africanus (Janensch, 1922)
Discovery
The remains of Tornieria were discovered at "Quarry A" in the Upper Dinosaur Member of the Tendaguru Formation, Lindi District, Tanzania, by Eberhard Fraas in 1907.
Estimations
Timeline:
Era: Mesozoic
Epoch: Late Jurassic
Stage: Tithonian
Age range: 151-145 mya
Stats:
Est. max. length: 26 meters
Est. max. hip height: ?
Est. max. weight: 14 tons
Diet: Herbivore
References
• Seeley HG (1869) "Gigantosaurus megalonyx, a terrestrial reptile from the Kimeridge Clay". Page 94-95 in "Index to the Fossil Remains of Aves, Ornithosauria, and Reptilia from the Secondary System of Strata, arranged in the Woodwardian Museum of the University of Cambridge".
• Lydekker R (1888) "Catalogue of the Fossil Reptilia and Amphibia in the British Museum (Natural History). Part I. Containing the Orders Ornithosauria, Crocodilia, Dinosauria, Squamata, Rhynchocephalia, and Proterosauria". British Museum (Natural History), London, 1-309.
• Fraas E (1908) "Dinosaurierfunde in Ostafrika [Discoveries of dinosaurs in German East Africa]". Jahreshefte des Vereins für Vaterländische Naturkunde in Württemberg 64: 84-86.
• Sternfeld R (1911) "Zur Nomenklatur der Gattung Gigantosaurus Fraas [On the nomenclature of the genus Gigantosaurus Fraas]". Sitzungsberichte der Gesellschaft naturforschender Freunde zu Berlin 1911: 398.
• Janensch W (1922) "Das Handskelett von Gigantosaurus robustus und Brachiosaurus brancai aus den Tendaguru-Schichten Deutsch-Ostafrikas". Centralblatt für Mineralogie, Geologie und Paläontologie 1922: 464-480.
• Haughton SH (1928) "On some reptilian remains from the Dinosaur Beds of Nyasaland". Transactions of the Royal Society of South Africa, 16: 67–75. DOI: 10.1080/00359192809519658.
• Nopcsa F (1930) "Zur Systematik und Biologie der Sauropoden". Palaeobiologica, 3: 40-52.
• Janensch W (1935) "Die Schädel der Sauropoden Brachiosaurus, Barosaurus und Dicraeosaurus aus den Tendaguruschichten Deutsch-Ostafrikas". Palaeontographica Supplement 1(2): 145-298.
• Janensch W (1961) "Die Gliedmaßen und Gliedmaßengürtel der Sauropoden der Tendaguru-Schichten". Palaeontographica Supplement 7(3): 177-235.
• Russell D, Beland P and McIntosh JS (1980) "Paleoecology of the dinosaurs of Tendaguru (Tanzania)". Memoires de la Societé Geologique de France 139: 169-175. (coins Barosaurus gracilis.)
• McIntosh JS (1990) "Sauropoda". Page 345–401 in Weishampel, Dodson and Osmólska (eds.) "The Dinosauria: First Edition".
• Olshevsky G (1992) "A revision of the parainfraclass Archosauria Cope, 1869, excluding the advanced Crocodylia". Mesozoic Meanderings, 2: 123.
• Maier G (2003) "African dinosaurs unearthed: the Tendaguru expeditions".
• Upchurch P and Dodson P (2004) "Sauropoda". Page 259–322 in Weishampel, Dodson and Osmólska (eds.) "The Dinosauria: Second Edition".
• Remes K (2004) "Revision von ‘Barosaurusafricanus (Sauropoda, Diplodocinae) aus den Tendaguru-Schichten Tansanias". Unpublished diploma thesis, Freie Universität Berlin.
• Remes K (2006) "Revision of the Tendaguru sauropod Tornieria africana (Fraas) and its relevance for sauropod paleobiogeography". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, 26(3): 651-669.
• Remes K (2007) "A second Gondwanan diplodocid dinosaur from the Upper Jurassic Tendaguru Beds of Tanzania, East Africa". Palaeontology, 50(3): 653-667.
• Remes K (2009) "Taxonomy of Late Jurassic diplodocid sauropods from Tendaguru (Tanzania)". Fossil Record, 12(1): 23–46. DOI: 10.1002/mmng.200800008.
• Sattler F and Schwarz D (2015) "Tooth replacement of the sauropod dinosaur Tornieria africana (Fraas) from Tendaguru (Late Jurassic, Tanzania)". Society of Vertebrate Paleontology Annual Meeting. DOI: 10.6084/m9.figshare.1576386.v1.
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To cite this page:
Atkinson, L. "TORNIERIA :: from DinoChecker's dinosaur archive".
›. Web access: 07th Mar 2026.
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