Allosaurus (?) tendagurensis Janensch, 1925

Allosaurus (?) tendagurensis Janensch, 1925

Werner Janensch tentatively assigned a fossil shinbone (tibia) to the genus Allosaurus , which had been introduced by Othniel Charles Marsh in 1877 for North American dinosaur finds. Marsh derived the new genus name from the Greek ἄλλος / állos, meaning “other,” to distinguish it from the other carnivorous dinosaurs known at that time. 91

Janensch’s specific name alludes (in Latinized form) to the location of the find at Tendaguru Hill, which gave the expedition its name. “I am designating the tibia with the new specific name Allosaurus (?) tendagurensis ,” he wrote. 92 The name “Tendaguru” was created when the word tendegulu was adopted by Kiswahili (a lingua franca used in East Africa) from a local language called Kimwera. In Kiswahili, however, the word has lost its original meaning and is used only to refer to the hill. As used by the Wamwera community situated closest to the hill, the word tendegulu means “bedpost.” 93 (It is not known why the hill was given this name, especially as the Wamwera normally name places after trees or after their leaders.) 94 The binomial Allosaurus tendagurensis is thus a composite of Greek, Latin and local Kimwera words. It literally means “other lizard from the bedpost,” but was created by Janensch in the sense of “allosaurus from Tendaguru.” According to Rauhaut, the type specimen lacks any species-specific characteristics, and Allosaurus (?) tendagurensis must consequently be considered a nomen dubium, a questionable name. 95