Pronunciation: TAM-buh-TIE-tan-is
Meaning: Tamba giant
Author/s: Saegusa and Ikeda (2014)
Synonyms: None known
First Discovery: Hyogo, Japan
Discovery Chart Position: #869
Tambatitanis amicitiae
Tambatitanis was found in August 2006 but took five seasons to excavate, not only because its smashed and scattered remains were stuck in hard, reddish mudstone on the bed of the Sasayama River but also because the hard, reddish mudstone was only visible for a short period during winter when the river was at its lowest ebb. Although now out of the ground, much of Tambatitanis is still encrusted in tough-as-nuts rock matrix. But a preliminary description, "just" 60 pages long, arrived precisely eight years after its discovery, highlighting features of the braincase, vertebrae and chevrons that are unique among Asian sauropods. A full description and quarry map are yet to materialise.
(Tamba Giant of Friendship)Etymology
Tambatitanis is derived from "Tamba" (the northwestern region of Kansai Area, SW Japan, where the type specimen was collected) and the Greek "titanis" ("giant" - referring to its presumed great size, though little of the neck and torso is actually known).
The species epithet, amicitia, means "friendship" in Latin, and refers to the friendship between Messrs. Adachi Kiyoshi and Murakami Shigeru
who made the find.
Discovery
The remains of Tambatitanis were discovered at "Kamitaki Quarry" on the riverbed of the Sasayama River, ("Lower Formation", Sasayama Group), Sannan-cho, Tamba City, Hyogo Prefecture,
SW Japan, by amateur palaeontologists Murakami Shigeru and Adachi Kiyoshi in August of 2006, along with frog bones, tooth and jaw remains of lizards, and shed teeth of basal hadrosauroids, ankylosaurs, therizinosauroids, a basal tyrannosauroid and undefined theropods.The holotype (MNHAH D-1029280) is a partial skeleton including a braincase, a lower jaw, the atlas, a fragmentary neck vertebra, 2 fragmentary back vertebrae, bits of hip vertebrae, a pubis and an ilium (hip bones), ribs, 22 tail vertebrae and 17 chevrons, and some teeth.
