Brontosaurus?

[jonfromdenver]

Call me crazy, but perhaps Cecil’s 1980 classic column, What color were dinosaurs? should be updated to relay the fact that there is no such thing as a brontosaurus. Just a technical glitch, I guess.

[Little_Bird]

I was gonna start a thread, but I had to log in and you beat me to it! (damn you jonfromdenver!!!) I was gonna mention that I have come right up close and personal with dino skin even though the column says there ain’t no such thing. But, since the column is older than me and there have been significant scientific discoveries since, I’ll let it slide.

[Darwin_s_Finch]

Over at TOSDMB (The “Other” SDMB), I posted the following:

Real brontosauruses did, in fact, walk the earth. The problem lies with the correct nomentclature of these beasties. In 1877, O. C. Marsh found the incomplete skeleton of a sauropod, and dubbed it Apatosaurus. Two years later, he found a much more complete sauropod skeleton (sans head), and dubbed this critter Brontosaurus . Unfortunately for the poor Bronto, it was later discovered that the Bronto bones were of the same species as the critter he had found previously: Apatosaurus. Laws of nomenclature being what they are, the first name had priority; thus the correct name for Brontosaurus was actually Apatosaurus (as it happens, that was also the correct name for Apatosaurus).

The whole Camarasaurus thing is a separate issue. The Brontosaurus specimen that Marsh found was lacking a head; however, a Camarasaurus head was found (relatively) nearby, and presumed by Marsh to belong to the headless skeleton (or, at the very least, if not that head, then one like it). Thus, Bronto went on display around the country, with the double indignity of having both the wrong name and the wrong head.

That Brontosaurus had the wrong name was discovered by Elmer Riggs in 1903. That Apatosaurus had the wrong head was not discovered until the late 1970’s; display skeletons underwent changes in the 1980’s, giving them the correct skull. Note that the species name, excelsus, was kept for the Brontosaurus specimen (thus, instead of Apatosaurus ajax and Brontosaurus excelsus, we now have A. ajax and A. excelsus).

Even after Riggs’ re-examination of the whole Apatosaurus / Brontosaurus thing, Brontosaurus still remains a “popular” name, if not a scientific one, so Cecil’s use of the word is not necessarily incorrect.

Note also that since Cecil’s article, dino skin impressions have been found. But, we still don’t have any info on dino colors.

[Miscellaneous spelling and punctuation errors corrected from original]

I feel that it is incorrect to simply state, “There’s no such thng as Brontosaurus.” The animal did exist, regardless of what its “correct” name is. That the name Brontosaurus has been rejected in favor of the older Apatosaurus is entirely due to the arbitrary laws of biological nomenclature (which, admittedly, are in place to avoid the confusion exemplified by the Apatosaurus / Brontosaurus situation). And, despite its non-scientific nature, “brontosaurus” still remains a popular name for Apatosaurus-like sauropods. One doesn’t, after all, say that cougars don’t exist, despite the fact that their “proper” name is Felis concolor.

[Darwin_s_Finch]

*Originally posted by Darwin’s Finch *
Unfortunately for the poor Bronto, it was later discovered that the Bronto bones were of the same species as the critter he had found previously: Apatosaurus.

I just realized I made a bit of a goof here. The Brontosaurus bones were found to belong to the same genus as those found earlier; specifically, that of Apatosaurus. The two were still classified as different species: ajax vs. excelsus.

[bup]

Originally posted by Little Bird *
** I was gonna mention that I have come right up close and personal with dino skin…*

I’d like to hear more about this. What do you mean? A cast of dinosaur skin in rock? What? Where?

[Arnold_Winkelried]

The appropriateness of the name brontosaurus was also discussed in this Straight Dope column:

Is it true the brontosaurus never really existed?

[MuscaDomestica]

I always thought that the Brontosaurus was just the common name for Apatosaurus Ajax, I do not see what is wrong with that.

[Arnold_Winkelried]

The columns mentioned in this thread can also be found on pages 10-11 of Cecil Adams’ book «The Straight Dope (1984; reissued 1986, 1998)» and pages 11-14 of Cecil Adams’ book «More of the Straight Dope (1988)».