This sauropod has had a superfluous taxonomic and phylogenetic history. When first discovered, Eberhard Fraas named it as a species of Gigantosaurus, G. robustus, based on the holotype partial skeleton SMNS 12144.[1] However, when Gigantosaurus was renamed Tornieria in 1911, G. robustus was placed in Tornieria, as T. robusta.[2] Although Tornieria was eventually synonymized with Barosaurus (although nowadays considered distinct), SMNS 12144 was still referred to Tornieria by several authors,[3][4][5][6] although one author referred T. robusta to Barosaurus, as B. robustus.[7]