Brontosaurus is no longer an accepted dinosaur name.
Oh horrors!!
Everyone's second-favorite dinosaur has been relegated to the scrap heap of history.
The story goes something like this: a paleontologist discovered the remains of a long-necked dinosaur with a body that looked sort of like an Apatosaurus (which had been discovered and named previously) but was much larger. It was given a new name: Brontosaurus. As often happens with such findings, there was no skull for the animal.
Ooops.
Later, it was determined that the earlier Apatosaurus was simply a juvenile version of the later find. But the rules of animal nomenclature are very clear on this subject: the earlier name take precedence and the latter name is abandoned. And the name that has been discarded can never be used again for any other animal.
Ooops again!
Much later, it was discovered that the paleontologist had mounted the skull of a different animal (a Camarasaurus) to complete the skeleton for museum exhibition.
So why does the name Brontosaurus linger on? I think it's because of folks who know that the name translates from Latin as "thunder lizard."
Sigh. What a waste of a great name!!
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