The Brontosaurus: Fact or Fiction?

   In the article "Brontosaurus Stomps Back to Claim Its Status as Real Dinosaur," written Ralph Martins, National Geographic, it discusses how the Brontosaurus may be its own dinosaur after all instead of being a closely related species of the genus Apatosaurus.
   Brontosaurus excelsus became Apatosaurus excelsus in 1903, but the name Brontosaurus, which means "thunder lizard" would live on for years to come. That was until 1970 when scientists ended the arguing by showing that the skull's of the two were extremely similar, therefore condemning the Brontosaurus to the same realm as unicorns, jackalopes, and other things that didn't exist.
   This new discovery bringing the Brontosaurus  "back to life" so to speak, has come from the research on the evolution of diplodocids, the family in which the  Brontosaurus belongs.  This family lived in North America, Europe, and parts of Africa during the late Jurassic period. Researchers looked at 81 diplodocids, looking at the presence or absence of 477 different skeletal features. Closely related species shared a lot of these features, while some species—like Brontosaurus and Apatosaurus—had much less in common. Their findings showed that the diplodocid family should be expanded to include two more genera, Brontosaurus and Galeamopus.

   I found this article quite informative and interesting as I had never known Brontosauruses were not real. I had, for the longest time, actually identified them as my favorite dinosaur, and I find it compelling that I had no clue they were once classified as not being a dinosaur at all.

Pictured above:

 

Brontosaurus, as imagined by paleontologists in the late 1800s: aquatic, and wearing a Camarasaurus skull. Later research would show that the sauropod actually had a slim, horselike skull.



All pictures taken along with the article source can be found at: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/04/150407-brontosaurus-back-return-apatosaurus-sauropod-dinosaurs-fossils-paleontology/