'''Torniera''' ("Tornier's") was a
sauropod dinosaur from Late
Jurassic Tanzania. It has an extremely convoluted taxonomic history.
Taxonomic history
In 1908, paleontologist Eberhard Fraas identified the remains of two sauropod species in Tanzania, which he named "Gigantosaurus" ''robusta'' ("Robust giant lizard") and "Gigantosaurus ''africanus'' ("African giant lizard"). A third species, "G." ''dixeyi'', was named by Haughton, 1928, and has since been re-assigned to ''
Malawisaurus''.
Unfortunately, the name ''
Gigantosaurus'' had already been used for a European sauropod. Another paleontologist (Sternfeld, 1911) renamed the Tanzanian sauropod ''Tornieria'', making the two species ''T. robusta'' and ''T. africana''. A re-evaluation of ''Torneria'' in 1961 by
Werner Janensch found that one species, ''T. africana'', was actually an African species of the North American sauropod ''
Barosaurus'' (though some paleontologists disagree with this assessment). The other African species, ''T. robusta'', turned out to belong to a
titanosaur. The titanosaur remains, which could obviously no longer be called ''Tornieria'', were renamed ''
Janenschia'' (Wild, 1991).
As it stands, there are two possible species of ''Tornieria'': ''T. africana'' and ''T. gracilis'' (another African ''Barosaurus'' species which would carry over if ''Tornieria'' and ''Barosaurus'' are not synonymous).
If ''Tornieria'' 'is' the same genus as ''Barosaurus'', then the name ''Tornieria'' would be abandoned.