Janensch was born at
Herzberg (Elster). In addition to
Friedrich von Huene, Janensch was probably Germany's most important dinosaur specialist from the early and middle twentieth century. His most famous and significant contributions stemmed from the expedition undertaken to the
Tendaguru Beds in what is now
Tanzania. where he worked as a
curator, Janensch helped uncover an enormous quantity of fossils of late
Jurassic period
dinosaurs, including several complete
Brachiosaurus skeletons, then the largest animal ever known. During his long subsequent career (he worked in Berlin from 1914 to 1961), Janensch named several new dinosaur
taxa including
Dicraeosaurus (1914) and
Elaphrosaurus (1920). Janensch's
Brachiosaurus were later determined to belong to a distinct, related genus,
Giraffatitan. In 1920 he married Paula Henneberg, daughter of the mathematician
Ernst Lebrecht Henneberg; they had no children. He died in 1969 at Berlin and was buried in
Waldfriedhof Dahlem in that city. ==Publications==