Talk:Tendaguru Formation

New section: "History of excavations" ?
I could not find anywhere on wikipedia a proper description of the various excavations at Tendaguru, not even the pre-WWI German and pre-WWII British effort, much less the various shorter research visits. Ideally, it should be given here. Research on it is not difficult: Gerhard Maier, African Dinosaurs Uearthed: The Tendaguru Expeditions (Indiana University Press, 2003) is entirely sufficient for a general overview, and cites all the literature one might otherwise need. If anyone is willing to describe the British efforts, I'll detail the German ones. Please? HMallison (talk) 21:42, 30 December 2009 (UTC)
 * nobody willing to detail the British efforts? I'll get started on the Germans then.HMallison (talk) 21:57, 7 January 2010 (UTC)

B. vs. G.
I am not really sure whether it is a smart idea to keep listing Giraffatitan as Brachiosaurus-later-changed-over-to-Giraffatitan. The animal is not Brachiosaurus, but Giraffatitan, so that name should come first. Plus the info that it used to be called Brachiosaurus, obviously. Why not keep the old text, but add the (awesome!) color scheme?HMallison (talk) 13:44, 31 December 2009 (UTC)
 * I've rewritten the Notes column for Giraffatitan in a way that hopefully accomadates your wishes. Abyssal (talk) 17:37, 31 December 2009 (UTC)

palaeobiological speculation and comparison to today's ecosystems - why one should refrain
I just removed edits by user:Troodon58 where the Tendaguru Formation ecosystem was compared genus-by-genus to today's savannah environments. I'd like to give a short explanation here why such speculation is unfounded and likely to be 99% false.

First of all, we know quite a lot about the living genera, but we do not even have anything but a half-complete list fo what actually lived millions of years ago. Secondly, the genera may contain a bunch of species, with quite different habits and habitats, that do not show in the bones. Thirdly, a skeleton tells preciously little about the lifestyle of an animal. Yes, we have SOME pointers - but those can at most be used to exclude extant animals (i.e., Giraffatitan =/ Sciurus [yes, absurd example]), but barely to make positive comparisons. Finally, the terminology of the entry was highly inexact. What is "colse to the ground" - 1m? 2m? 3m? Kentrosaurus was easily capable of using a tripodal pose, reaching up to app. 3 m..... that's far from what "low level browsers" today can reach. OOPS! HMallison (talk) 20:28, 6 September 2010 (UTC)
 * Wisdom aside, original research is forbidden by policy. Now if Troo can get his ideas published, then we can talk about putting it in the article. Abyssal (talk) 01:14, 7 September 2010 (UTC)

Commons files used on this page have been nominated for deletion
The following Wikimedia Commons files used on this page have been nominated for deletion: Participate in the deletion discussions at the nomination pages linked above. —Community Tech bot (talk) 21:51, 10 March 2019 (UTC)
 * Dysalotosaurus cisiopurple.jpg (discussion)
 * Tornieria cisiopurple.jpg (discussion)

Coordinates
Coordinates cannot be correct, too far south and west. At Henning (1912), Am Tendaguru, p.15 (https://archive.org/download/amtendaguruleben00henn/amtendaguruleben00henn.pdf) we can see a map the gives a location (in accordance withj the text) which places the Tendaguru Hill (original find site) at the southern bank of Mbemkuru River (in the old map: Mbenkuru), roughly 33/35 km north of Lindi and from there about 55 km west. Cannot identify any mountain on a map or satellite image, but it should be somewhere around -9.66, 39.23. Kipala (talk) 18:48, 1 April 2019 (UTC)
 * Thanks for noticing, is it correct now? I used the coordinates of the Tendaguru quarry at Fossilworks for both present and paleocoords. Tisquesusa (talk) 19:59, 1 April 2019 (UTC)
 * Yes, should be close. There is a new map at Bussert & alii (2009). According to that map the hill is close to Nambiranji, which geonames has at -9.7, 39.2. http://www.geonames.org/151973/nambiranji.html. The complete formation has been discovered spread out between Kilwa and Lindi. Kipala (talk) 21:43, 1 April 2019 (UTC)

Commons files used on this page have been nominated for deletion
The following Wikimedia Commons files used on this page have been nominated for deletion: Participate in the deletion discussions at the nomination pages linked above. —Community Tech bot (talk) 16:23, 3 April 2019 (UTC)
 * Diplodocidae indet. (Barosaurus africanus) - Tendaguru Formation.jpg (discussion)
 * Diplodocidae indet. - Tendaguru Formation.jpg (discussion)
 * Diplodocinae indet. - Tendaguru Formation.jpg (discussion)
 * Flagellicaudata indet. - braincase - Tendaguru Formation, Tanzania.jpg (discussion)