Re-evaluation of Australodocus bohetii, a putative diplodocoid sauropod from the Tendaguru Formation of Tanzania, with comment on Late Jurassic sauropod faunal … (original) (raw)

2011, Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology

The Late Jurassic sauropod Australodocus bohetii was originally assigned to Diplodocidae, primarily on the basis of bifurcate neural spines. The holotype and paratype materials of A. bohetii are re-examined and found to have closer affinities with Brachiosaurus and relatives than with any diplodocoid. The presence of a second titanosauriform sauropod in the Tanzanian fauna is important for understanding the palaeoecology of the region. Comparisons between Tendaguru and three other contemporaneous sauropod faunas (Morrison Formation, USA; Lourinhã and Alcobaça formations, Portugal; Cañadón Calcáreo, Argentina) are also made. The revised Tendaguru fauna, with its high diversity of high-browsing Macronarians, now more closely matches the conifer-forest dominated landscape inferred from palaeobotanical evidence. The Morrison Formation, dominated by low-browse, is once again the only formation containing multiple diplodocids.