Tazoudasaurus is a genus of gravisaurian, probably a vulcanodontid sauropod dinosaurs hailing from the late Early Jurassic (Toarcian), that was recovered in the "Toundoute Continental Series" (Azilal Formation) located in the High Atlas Mountains of Morocco in North Africa.

[2][3] Back in the early 2000s, several excavations took place in the High Atlas near Toundoute, in the province of Ouarzazate, where a series 300 m thick continental redbeds are exposed.

In these redbeds, two main fossiliferous localities were initially denominated "To1 site" and excavated in the Duar of Tazouda, a hill near Toundoute, separated 30 m from each other.

[1] The remains, consisting of the holotype, a partial adult skeleton and cranial material (specimen To 2000–1) including complete left mandible with teeth, quadrate, jugal, postorbital, parietal, frontal and exoccipital, as well as an associated partial juvenile skeleton (specimen To 2000–2) found in continental detrital sediments of the Toarcian aged Azilal Formation, were described by Ronan Allain et al. in early 2004.

The generic name derives from one of the localities, Tazouda, while the specific descriptor is a Latinization of the Berber term for "slender" due to the animal's small size for a sauropod.

[1] Latter work on the same area yielded new dinosaurian material, with the new localities, with the original yielding another juvenile, "To1´" (one adult, a subadult and a juvenile specimen), "Pt haut-Pt" (adult and the Ceratosaurian Theropod Berberosaurus[4]) "O-R", with indeterminate amniote material and finally "To2", with a subadult Tazoudasaurus and a large-bodied theropod.

Some researchers, like Najat Akesbi, proposed the creation of a museum to house the local dinosaur fossils, as part of the "Dino Atlas" project.

Teeth wear in V-shaped marks indicates tooth occlusion, suggesting that vulcanodontids processed food orally when feeding.

T. naimi bears the most complete fossil skeleton for Early Jurassic sauropod remains found to date due to the scarcity of exposed strata of that age.

[5] Disarticulated elements of the skull roof and of the braincase have been recovered, showing an incomplete fronto-parietal firmly fused together, with the frontals suggesting a larger than wider shape, and the parietal lacking an anterolateral process, something more akin to non-Sauropod Sauropodomorphs.

[8] At its description, Tazoudasaurus was found to be a sister taxon of Vulcanodon, based mostly on features such as a proximal dimensions of pedal digits II and III significantly broader then deep, considered an autapomorphy of the second genus, and differing only in caudal vertebrae features while it also possesses characters that place it outside Eusauropoda, both on the family Vulcanodontidae, sometimes rendered invalid and paraphyletic, as was meant to include taxa such as the Indian Barapasaurus, that was excluded upon Tazoudasaurus description.

[10] The "Toundoute Continental Series", unlike other members of the Azilal Formation, due to the presence of volcanic material of coeval age.

The Azilal Formation recovers a Terrestrial progradation that happened in the Central High Atlas Basin towards the Toarcian, where the older Pliensbachian Carbonate Platform retreated to the east.