Due to the rules of scientific naming – the first name published gets priority – Brontosaurus was relegated to scientific history and the fossils reassigned to Apatosaurus. That was until a study in 2015 unexpectedly found evidence that Brontosaurus was distinct from Apatosaurus all along, signalling the reinstated status of this iconic dinosaur.

4 hours ago - Brontosaurus (/ˌbrɒntəˈsɔːrəs/; meaning "thunder lizard" from the Greek words βροντή, brontē "thunder" and σαῦρος, sauros "lizard") is a genus of herbivorous sauropod dinosaur that lived in present-day United States during the Late Jurassic period.

December 31, 2023 - At the time, scientists dubbed the giant plant eater, which lived during the Jurassic period about 150 million years ago, Brontosaurus excelsus, ... However, in 1903, paleontologist Elmer Riggs found that B. excelsus was very similar to another ...

Now, a dinosaur-sized study of the family tree of the Diplodocidae, the group that includes such monstrous beasts as Apatosaurus, Diplodocus, and Barosaurus, finds that USPS got it right: The fossils originally called Brontosaurus show enough skeletal differences from other specimens of Apatosaurus that they rightfully belong to a different genus. The study, published online this week in the journal PeerJ, brings the long-banished name back into scientific respectability as a genus coequal with Apatosaurus.

July 20, 1998 - Apatosaurus was first described in 1877, two years before Brontosaurus, and, according to taxonomic naming rules, it therefore became the official genus under which both dinosaurs were classified. Consequently, the species B. excelsus was changed to A. excelsus, joining A. ajax in genus Apatosaurus, and the name Brontosaurus was reduced to a mere synonym.

Scientists use the first name given to an animal, so they decided to rename the Brontosaurus to Apatosaurus because Apatosaurus came first. Scientists now know that the back bones of the Apatosaurus grew together as the animal gets bigger. It was because the back bones changed that Dr.

The name given to the first specimen of the species to be discovered, Apatosaurus, became the accepted scientific name; Brontosaurus became invalid, or, at best, considered a redundancy—even though for most people, Brontosaurus remained the ...

April 7, 2015 - Wired described how the Brontosaurus name lost out: The mistake, he said, was in the number of sacrum bones (where the tail attaches to the spinal cord). The Apatosaurus sacrum was made of three bones, while the Brontosaurus had five. Rather than being different species, Riggs contended the Brontosaurus was just a younger version of the Apatosaurus, and the sacrum bones would have fused together as the dinosaur aged (bone fusing happens in many species, including humans).

January 4, 2024 - It’s been on lunch boxes, made into countless toys, and was featured on a U.S. postage stamp. It even served as the official icon of Sinclair Oil company. However, there is one problem: there is no dinosaur named Brontosaurus.

May 27, 2024 - However, for almost a century, scientists believed that they were the same type of dinosaur. They were scientifically classified as Apatosaurus, although often referred to as Brontosaurus due to that name being better recognized.

Brontosaurus (/ˌbrɒntəˈsɔːrəs/; meaning "thunder lizard" from the Greek words βροντή, brontē "thunder" and σαῦρος, sauros "lizard") is a genus of herbivorous sauropod dinosaur that lived in present-day United States during ...

April 7, 2015 - He named one Apatosaurus ajax (Apatosaurus means "deceptive lizard") and the second skeleton Brontosaurus excelsus (Brontosaurus means "thunder lizard"). Shortly after Marsh's death, a team from the Field Museum of Chicago found another dinosaur ...

August 8, 2019 - Two other dinosaurs classified under Apatosaurus should also migrate to the Brontosaurus genus, the researchers determined after reviewing all the members of the Diplodocidae family of dinosaurs. The original Brontosaurus excelsus (meaning ...

February 20, 2024 - Some of the largest animals to ever walk on Earth were the long-necked, long-tailed dinosaurs known as the sauropods—and the most famous of these giants is probably Brontosaurus, the "thunder lizard."

The scientific name of the Brontosaurus, “Brontosaurus excelsus,” directly reflects its impressive stature and significance in paleontological history. The etymology details reveal that “Brontosaurus” translates to “thunder lizard” ...

April 8, 2015 - After his team excavated fossils of two huge, long-neck dinosaurs, prolific 19th-century paleontologist Othniel Charles Marsh named the first one Apatosaurus ("deceptive lizard'') in 1877 and the second one Brontosaurus ("thunder lizard'') in 1879.

At first, Marsh named Apatosaurus ... name, “Deceptive lizard,” is a reference to this enigma. He later also named Brontosaurus excelsus based on bones from the hip of a sauropod....

Its huge body could weigh tens of tons. Some believe Brontosaurus had two brains, one in its head and one in its hip. ... The name Brontosaurus excelsus experienced controversy in the 1900s and early 2000s.

After the right skull was linked to the Apatosaurus, it was realized that the Brontosaurus was the same dinosaur as the Apatosaurus. Since the name Apatosaurus was coined first, it was retained and the name Brontosaurus was deemed invalid.