page_title: Giraffatitan
section_title: History of discovery
hierarchical_section_title: Giraffatitan / History of discovery
caption_attribution_description: English: Title: Am Tendaguru&#160;: Leben und Wirken einer deutschen Forschungsexpedition zur Ausgrabung vorweltlicher Riesensaurier in Deutsch-Ostafrika Identifier: amtendaguruleben00henn (find matches) Year: 1912 (1910s) Authors: Hennig, Edwin, b. 1882 Subjects: Dinosaurs; Paleontology Publisher: Stuttgart&#160;: E. Schweizerbart Contributing Library: University of California Libraries Digitizing Sponsor: Internet Archive View Book Page: Book Viewer About This Book: Catalog Entry View All Images: All Images From Book Click here to view book online to see this illustration in context in a browseable online version of this book. Text Appearing Before Image: 58 Pic Saurier. ftrömenbc ^lut ):iahe il^nen bann in IIncbenI)ettcn bes Siranbes ben Hücftoeg abgefcfinitten iinb pielen ein (5rab bereitet. ^efunbe Text Appearing After Image: 2lbb. ö-j. ^ugffclctt eines I^inofauricv: (9Iu§ ©ife.=S8er. G5ef. 9?aturf. ^reunbe, SBerün.) iiiienfdf). aufredet ftefjenb (jefunbcner ^^ii§(felcttc laffcn fogar bic Per= mutung auffommen, ba% bie Cicre im Sdjiamm eingefunden unb fterfen geblieben ujären. I)em im Perljältnis 3um Körper Note About Images Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitally enhanced for readability - coloration and appearance of these illustrations may not perfectly resemble the original work.
context_page_description: Giraffatitan is a genus of sauropod dinosaur that lived during the late Jurassic Period. It was originally named as an African species of Brachiosaurus, but this has since been changed. Giraffatitan was for many decades known as the largest dinosaur but recent discoveries of several larger dinosaurs prove otherwise; giant titanosaurians appear to have surpassed Giraffatitan in terms of sheer mass. Also, the sauropod dinosaur Sauroposeidon is estimated to be taller and possibly heavier than Giraffatitan.
  All size estimates for Giraffatitan are based on the specimen HMN SII, a subadult individual between 21.8–22.5 metres in length and about 12 meters tall. Mass estimates are varied and range from as little as 15 tonnes to as much as 78.3 tonnes but there is evidence supporting that these animals could grow larger; specimen HMN XV2, represented by a fibula 13% larger than the corresponding material on HMN SII, might have attained 26 metres in length or longer.
context_section_description: In 1906, mining engineer Bernhard Wilhelm Sattler, while travelling, noticed an enormous bone jutting out of the ground at the Tendaguru (the "steep hill") near Lindi, in what was then German East Africa, today Tanzania. In early 1907, his superior Wilhelm Arning in Hannover received a report on the find. Arning again informed the Kommission für die landeskundliche Erforschung der Schutzgebiete, a commission in Berlin overviewing the geographical investigation of German protectorates. The German secretary of state of colonies, Berhard Dernburg, at the time visited German East Africa accompanied by the industrialist Heinrich Otto. Otto had invited the paleontologist Professor Eberhard Fraas to join him as a scientific advisor. In the summer of 1907, Fraas, already for some months travelling the colony, received a letter from Dr Hans Meyer in Leipzig urging him to investigate Sattler's discovery. On 30 August, Fraas arrived by steamer at the coastal town of Lindi. A five-day march brought him to the Tendaguru, where he could confirm that the bones were authentic and dinosaurian. Soon Sattler joined him with a team of native miners who uncovered two large sauropod skeletons which were transported to Germany. Ultimately, these would become the holotypes of the genera Tornieria and Janenschia.
  Fraas had observed that the Tendaguru layers were exceptionally rich in fossils. After his return to Germany he tried to raise enough money for a major expedition. He managed to attract the interest of Professor Wilhelm von Branca, the head of the Geologisch-Paläontologische Institut und Museum der Königliche Friedrich-Wilhelm Universität zu Berlin. Von Branca considered it a matter of German national pride that such a project would succeed. He involved the well-connected pathologist David von Hansemann. Von Hansemann founded a Tendaguru Committee headed by Johann Albrecht, the duke of Mecklenburg. Soon it became fashionable to join this committee which counted a large number of prominent German industrialists and scientists among its members. Many of their rich friends donated considerable sums. To lead the expedition, von Branca sent out one of his curators, Werner Janensch, and one of his assistants, Edwin Hennig. Both men arrived in Dar es Salaam on 2 April 1909.
   
  The expedition initially employed about 160 native porters as beasts of burden could not be used because of the danger posed by the tse tse fly. During four field seasons, of 1909, 1910, 1911 and 1912, about a hundred paleontological quarries were opened. Large amounts of fossil material were shipped to Germany. Soon it became evident that apart from Tornieria and Janenschia, other sauropods were present in the layers. One was the medium-sized Dicraeosaurus, a relatively common find. More rare was a gigantic form that far surpassed the others in magnitude and that is today known as Giraffatitan. The first quarry with Giraffatitan material was "Site D", located about one kilometre northeast of the Tendaguru Hill and opened on 21 June 1909. It contained a relatively complete skeleton of a medium-sized individual, lacking the hands, the neck, the back vertebrae and the skull. It included an articulated series of twenty-nine tail vertebrae. The other bones were found in close association on a surface of twenty-two square metres. "Site IX", located 1.4 kilometres northeast of the Tendaguru Hill, was opened on 17 August 1909. Among an assemblage of 150 disarticulated dinosaur bones, also two Giraffatitan thighbones were present. The next Giraffatitan quarry was "Site N", at nine hundred metres east of the Tendaguru Hill, excavated in September 1909. It held a single disarticulated skeleton containing a back vertebra, a tail vertebra, ribs, a scapula. a possible scapula, a humerus, two ischia and a number of unidentifiable bones.
  The most important source of Giraffatitan fossils would be "Site S" at one kilometre southwest of the hill. Excavations started on 11 October 1909 and continued well into 1912. In 1909 limb and girdle elements were dug up. During 1910, a cut bank of the
caption: A hindlimb during excavation in the Tendaguru
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