Brontosaurus dinosaur could make a thundering comeback (CBC)

CBC News
Posted: Apr 07, 2015 4:45 PM ET Last Updated: Apr 08, 2015 8:49 AM ET

The Brontosaurus, a long-necked dinosaur that scientists believed for years never truly existed, might make its return to the official books after a century-long paleontological purgatory.

A new study, published in the open access journal PeerJ, attempts to clear up confusion about several types of the long-necked dinosaurs, particularly whether the famous Brontosaurus was a unique creature or simply confused for a pre-existing species, the Apatosaurus.

The study found enough differences in the samples previously described as belonging to the Brontosaurus to consider it a separate genus from the Apatosaurus, instead of classifying the two as synonymous.

Apatosaurus can be roughly translated as "deceptive lizard," while Brontosaurus translates into "thunder lizard." The latter's evocative name might explain why its title continued to appear in school text books and children's science books for years.

"We were very surprised when we got these results that Brontosaurus was valid again," Emanuel Tschopp, co-author of the study, told Wired. "It was a number of small differences that were important, but probably the most obvious features that would help distinguish the two is that the Apatosaurus has an extremely wide neck, where Brontosaurus' is more high than wide."
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more: http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/brontosaurus-dinosaur-could-make-a-thundering-comeback-1.3023791
https://peerj.com/articles/857/




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