GasBandit
Staff member
Pluto and the Brontosaurus have been at the center of two of the most contentious debates in the science world.
The former (sort of) regained its title as a planet last year, and thanks to a new study, scientists are also finally acknowledging that the “thunder lizard” was a real, distinct dinosaur.
A paleontologist named Othniel Charles Marsh first named the Brontosaurus back in 1879 in a race to discover new species dubbed the “Bone Wars,” but in 1903 a guy named Elmer Riggs decided it was basically the same as the Apatosaurus, which was discovered several years earlier. So he categorized them as two different species in the same genus and the name “Brontosaurus” was done away with.
From the Smithsonian:
Researchers from the UK and Portugal recently studied a variety of fossils of the creatures and have now determined that the Brontosaurus is unique enough to be considered a separate dinosaur species and genus.
They examined various dinos in the diplodocid family and looked at about 500 anatomical traits to arrive at their conclusion.
One of the more distinctive differences is that the Apatosaurus has a wider neck than Brontosaurus, according to one of the researchers, Emanuel Tschopp.
“It’s a nice example of how science works. A new finding can overturn more than 100 years of beliefs,” he said.
The former (sort of) regained its title as a planet last year, and thanks to a new study, scientists are also finally acknowledging that the “thunder lizard” was a real, distinct dinosaur.
A paleontologist named Othniel Charles Marsh first named the Brontosaurus back in 1879 in a race to discover new species dubbed the “Bone Wars,” but in 1903 a guy named Elmer Riggs decided it was basically the same as the Apatosaurus, which was discovered several years earlier. So he categorized them as two different species in the same genus and the name “Brontosaurus” was done away with.
From the Smithsonian:
Since it was named first, Apatosaurus had priority over Brontosaurus. Despite the extreme similarity between Marsh’s skeletons, Riggs recognized that they differed just enough to be regarded as different species. Therefore Apatosaurus ajax would remain in place, and Brontosaurus was changed to Apatosaurus excelsus. It took a while for museums to follow suit, but by the 1970s everyone finally got on board with the shift.
Researchers from the UK and Portugal recently studied a variety of fossils of the creatures and have now determined that the Brontosaurus is unique enough to be considered a separate dinosaur species and genus.
They examined various dinos in the diplodocid family and looked at about 500 anatomical traits to arrive at their conclusion.
One of the more distinctive differences is that the Apatosaurus has a wider neck than Brontosaurus, according to one of the researchers, Emanuel Tschopp.
“It’s a nice example of how science works. A new finding can overturn more than 100 years of beliefs,” he said.
