Wamweracaudia
Wamweracaudia Temporal range: Late Jurassic
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Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Clade: | Dinosauria |
Clade: | Saurischia |
Clade: | †Sauropodomorpha |
Clade: | †Sauropoda |
Family: | †Mamenchisauridae |
Genus: | †Wamweracaudia Mannion et al, 2019 |
Species: | †W. keranjei
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Binomial name | |
†Wamweracaudia keranjei Mannion et al., 2019
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Wamweracaudia is a large herbivorous
, 155-145 million years ago.Discovery and naming
During the German expeditions to the Tendaguru in German East Africa between 1909 and 1912, paleontologist Werner Janensch supervised the excavation of a sauropod tail at "Site G". In 1929, he referred this tail to Gigantosaurus robustus.[1]
In 1991, G. robustus was made the separate genus
The specimen was in 2019 given the new genus and species name Wamweracaudia keranjei by Philip D. Mannion, Paul Upchurch, Daniela Schwarz and Oliver Wings in their re-appraisal of Janenschia and other presumed titanosaur finds from the Tendaguru. The generic name combines a reference to the Wamwera, a tribe inhabiting the region of the find, with a Latin cauda, "tail". The specific name honours the native foreman leading the team that excavated the tail, Mohammadi Keranje.[5]
Wamweracaudia is known from the holotype MB.R.2091.1–30, MB.R.3817.1 & MB.R.3817.2, found in a layer of the Tendagaru Formation dating from the Tithonian. It consists of an almost continuous series of thirty front and middle tail vertebrae, two neural spines of front tail vertebrae, and two chevrons. The tail vertebrae are numbered such that MB.R.2091.30 is the most anterior vertebra of the known series — though not necessarily the first tail vertebra — and MB.R.2091.1 the last one. Probably one vertebra is missing from the series.[5]
Description
The describing authors established four
Two additional traits are autapomorphies if Wamweracaudia is indeed a mamenchisaurid. The transverse processes or caudal ribs of the front tail vertebrae strongly curve sideways and to the front. With the front tail vertebrae, just in between the outer side of the prezygapophysis and the tip of the upper side of the diapophysis, the top rib facet, a pair of small extensions, or tubercula, is present.[5]
Phylogeny
An exact
Paleobiology
As a sauropod, Wamweracaudia would have been a large
References
- ^ Janensch, W. 1929. "Material und Formengehalt in der Ausbeute der Tendaguru-Expedition", Palaeontographica, Supplement 7, 1. Reihe, Teil 2: 1-34
- ^ Wild, R. 1991. "Janenschia n. g. robusta (E. Fraas 1908) pro Tornieria robusta (E. Fraas 1908) (Reptilia, Saurischia, Sauropodomorpha). Stuttgarter Beiträge zur Naturkunde, Serie B (Geologie und Paläontologie) 173: 1–4
- ^ 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, Band A256, Lieferung 1-3 (2000): 25 - 76
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- ^ a b c d e Philip D Mannion, Paul Upchurch, Daniela Schwarz, Oliver Wings, 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, zly068, https://doi.org/10.1093/zoolinnean/zly068
- ISBN 0-520-24209-2