Going back over the brontosaurus/apatosaurus naming confusion, I looked to see what “apatosaurus” meant, which was something like “deceptive lizard.”
OK, so where was the deception? Was this foreshadowing by O.C. Marsh on his later dino-deception of some years later?
http://www.brunching.com/dinos.html As usual, Lore knows the score.
The deception of Apatosaurus lies in the similiarity of its chevron bones (aka hemal arches, found on the underside of the tail vertebrae) to those of Mososaurs.
Dammit…mosasaurs.
Oh, and the name itself is somewhat deceptive, since the orginal deception turns out not to be so deceptive after all.
Translation:
Marsh, when he described Apatosaurus, had only made a cursory examination of unprepared material. Thus his conclusion as to the similarity of Apatosaurus’ chevron bones to those of mosasaurs was rather hasty; it turns out that apatosaur chevron bones are more similar to those of many other dinosaurs after all, while Mosasaurus and other mosasaurs had rather different chevron bones!
Yes.
That’s why it’s extinct.
A Colt .45 beats 4 Aces. 