From 1909 to 1913, German expeditions of the Berlin Museum für Naturkunde uncovered a diverse dinosaur fauna from the Tendaguru Formation in German East Africa, in what is now Tanzania. Although commonly considered the most important African dinosaur locality, large theropod dinosaurs are only known through few and very fragmentary remains. In 1920, German paleontologist Werner Janensch assigned several dorsal vertebrae from the quarry "TL" to "Ceratosaurus", as "Ceratosaurus" sp. (of uncertain species). In 1925, Janensch named a new species of "Ceratosaurus", "C. roechlingi", based on fragmentary remains from the quarry "Mw" encompassing a quadrate bone, a fibula, fragmentary caudal vertebrae, and other fragments. This specimen stems from an individual substantially larger than the "C. nasicornis" holotype.