Obsolete Science Dinosaurs History Biology
MOSTLY FALSE Outdated, part true

Brontosaurus doesn't exist, it was always called Apatosaurus

Brontosaurus was reclassified, then resurrected as a valid genus

✗ The myth everyone repeats

Brontosaurus was merely a mistaken naming duplicate of Apatosaurus, invalidated in 1903 and never a legitimate genus.

✓ What is actually true

Brontosaurus was named by O.C. Marsh in 1879 but was officially synonymized with Apatosaurus in 1903 due to confused fossil assignments. However, a 2015 study by Emanuel Tschopp, Alexander Benton, and colleagues published in PeerJ re-evaluated the remains and demonstrated that Brontosaurus and Apatosaurus were indeed separate sauropod genera based on distinct anatomical characteristics. Brontosaurus was officially resurrected as a valid genus, stunning the paleontological community and vindicating a name that had been dismissed for over a century.

Believed 1879โ€“2015
Year Revised 2015
Why Changed Reclassification
Confidence Revised
Region Worldwide

Reception

9/10
9/10
The receipts 3 sources
  1. PeerJ: Phylogenetic Reassessment of Apatosaurus and BrontosaurusPRIMARY
  2. Smithsonian: The Return of BrontosaurusREFERENCE
  3. Nature News: Brontosaurus makes a comebackREFERENCE

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