Gigantosaurus africanus Fraas, 1908

Gigantosaurus africanus Fraas, 1908

Gigantosaurus robustus Fraas, 1908

The first person to name any of the Tendaguru specimens was Eberhard Fraas, a paleontologist from Stuttgart who had been the first scientist to visit the site in September 1907. Fraas described the enormous and relatively easily accessible bones he had found near the surface and taken with him to Stuttgart, and he selected for them the genus name Gigantosaurus . The name derives from the Greek words γιγαντιαίος / gigantiaíos (“giant”) and σαύρα / saúra 31 (“lizard”). As Fraas explained, “the name Gigantosaurus is particularly apt considering the enormous size of our African species.” 32 This genus name had previously been introduced by British paleontologist Harry Govier Seeley in 1869. The various species described by Seeley had since been reassigned to different genera, however, and Fraas believed that the genus name could be used again.

Fraas distinguished two species: the stocky G. robustus (“robust giant lizard”) and the more delicate G. africanus (“African giant lizard”). Doubts were soon raised by the German herpetologist Richard Sternfeld about the validity of these names, however. Sternfeld was not persuaded by Fraas’s argument that the genus name once used by Seeley had been “eliminated,” and accused Fraas of failing to follow the proper naming conventions. In 1911, he gave a new genus name— Tornieria —to the two species described by Fraas as Gigantosaurus . 33 In choosing this name, he was honoring Gustav Tornier, a fellow herpetologist from Berlin and a prominent member of the Berlin Society of Friends of Natural Science (Gesellschaft Naturforschender Freunde zu Berlin). Tornier had used his influence in the Society of Friends to promote the Tendaguru Expedition and had also been involved in mounting the American replica of Diplodocus carnegii in the Museum für Naturkunde in 1909. Later, in 1922, after the remains of Gigantosaurus africanus / Tornieria africana had been fully prepared, another reclassification was made— this time by Werner Janensch, who tentatively referred the species to Barosaurus , a genus described by American paleontologist Othniel Marsh in 1890. Derived from the Greek βαρύς / barýs (“heavy”), Barosaurus means “heavy lizard.” 34 The referral to Barosaurus was also disputed, however, and it is no longer considered to be the proper genus for either specimen. 35

The fossil remains of Gigantosaurus robustus / Tornieria robusta were reexamined in 1991 by Stuttgart-based paleontologist Rupert Wild and renamed Janenschia robusta in honor of expedition leader Werner Janensch. 36 The second species, africana , was reassigned to Tornieria following a 2006 phylogenetic study which concluded that Tornieria is a valid genus containing a single species by the name of T. africana . 37