Tuebingosaurus
Tuebingosaurus is an extinct genus of massopodan sauropodomorph dinosaur from the Late Triassic Trossingen Formation of Germany. The genus contains a single species, Tuebingosaurus maierfritzorum, originally identified as a specimen of Plateosaurus.
Discovery and naming
The holotype, GPIT-PV-30787, also known as "GPIT IV", is a partial postcranial skeleton. It was discovered in 1922 and stored in the paleontological collection of the University of Tübingen. It was originally assigned to the species Gresslyosaurus plieningeri. Later, it was considered an exemplar of Plateosaurus, sometimes being used as reference materials for phylogenetic analyses using its name. However, it actually contains several features with more derived sauropodomorphs, which allowed it to be named as the distinct taxon Tuebingosaurus maierfritzorum in 2022. The generic name, "Tuebingosaurus", honors the city of Tübingen while the specific name, "maierfritzorum", refers to both Uwe Fritz and Wolfgang Maier; the former is an editor at the journal Vertebrate Zoology which hosted a Festschrift honoring Maier; its description was a part of this academic event.In their 2025 review of Triassic reptile fossils from Germany, Sues & Schoch claimed that additional review of the holotype revealed that the characters used to distinguish Tuebingosaurus from other sauropodomorphs were based on damaged bones. As such, they regarded the species as a nomen dubium, pending additional research on the material.