Australodocus

Australodocus (meaning "southern beam" from the Latin australis "southern" and the Greek dokos/δοκоς "beam") is a genus of sauropod dinosaur that lived during the Late Jurassic period, around 150 million years ago, in what is now Lindi Region, Tanzania. Though initially considered a diplodocid, recent analyses suggest it may instead be a titanosauriform.

== Discovery and naming == thumb|250px|left|The Upper Dinosaur Member, which is the layer of the Tendaguru Formation that the holotype was recovered from The remains of Australodocus bohetii were recovered in 1909 from the Upper Dinosaur Member of the Tendaguru Formation of Tanzania, which has been a fertile ground for many Jurassic dinosaurs, including several genera of large sauropods, such as Giraffatitan, Wamweracaudia, Janenschia, Tendaguria, and Tornieria. Australodocus itself is based on two neck vertebrae, which are less elongate than those of other diplodocids and differ in other anatomical details. These vertebrae were originally part of a series of four vertebrae collected in the 1909 expedition led by Werner Janensch; like some other fossils collected by German expeditions to Africa, the other bones were destroyed in World War II. The 2007 description of the surviving bones increases the known diversity of sauropods and diplodocids in Tendaguru.