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"Brontosaurus" Name Resurrected Thanks To New Dino Family Tree

Posted by timothy on from the usps-has-a-stopped-geologic-clock dept.

sciencehabit writes In, the U.S. Postal Service issued colorful dinosaur stamps, including one for Brontosaurus. Paleontologists and educators loudly protested that the correct scientific name for the iconic beast was Apatosaurus—a fact that even lay dino aficionados and many 8-year-olds took pride in knowing. But now, a dinosaur-sized study of the family tree of the Diplodocidae, the group that includes such monstrous beasts as Apatosaurus, Diplodocus, and Barosaurus, finds that USPS got it right: The fossils originally called Brontosaurus show enough skeletal differences from other specimens of Apatosaurus that they rightfully belong to a different genus. The study, published online this week in the journal PeerJ, brings the long-banished name back into scientific respectability as a genus coequal with Apatosaurus.

18 of 68 comments (clear)

  1. Now get Pluto designated a planet by perpenso · · Score: 4, Funny

    And if we can get Pluto designated a planet once again we'll be back to normal. :-)

    1. Re:Now get Pluto designated a planet by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      "Pluto" Reinstated as a Planet Thanks To New Grammar Analysis

      In, the IAU created the "dwarf planet" category and put Pluto in it. Everyone thought this meant Pluto was no longer a planet. But now, an advanced analysis of English expressions which included "blue car" and "white cloud" came to the conclusion that a blue car is a car, and that a dwarf planet is a planet. The study, published this week, brings the long-banished planet back into scientific respectability.

    2. Re:Now get Pluto designated a planet by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 5, Funny

      Schoolchildren are bing taught there are eight planets

      Home schooled kids are still learning about all nine. Obama's conspiracy to purge Pluto from the textbooks is not going to work. When Ted Cruz wins in 2016, both Pluto and the brontosaurus will be back. The Republicans aren't call the "dinosaur party" for nothing.

    3. Re:Now get Pluto designated a planet by jellomizer · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I learned a long time ago, the stuff I was taught in elementary school was nearly all wrong.
      So when I hear that established fact has changed, it doesn't bug me so much. It is just part of the normal course.

      Truth is the opposite of lying, Truth isn't absolute fact.

      Scientific Truth, is the best guess on how things are based on evidence. As we get more evidence the nature of the scientific truth changes. The outdated scientific truth was truthful when it was new, as with the evidence it was the best case to follow. Then we find more and a better idea.... Sometimes we realize after we get even more the original idea was better.

      --
      If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
    4. Re:Now get Pluto designated a planet by cyberchondriac · · Score: 4, Funny

      or we could get Brontosaurus designated as a dwarf planet.

      --

      Look back up at my post, now look back down, you're on the Internet. Now look back up. I'm a signature.
    5. Re:Now get Pluto designated a planet by blivit42 · · Score: 2

      Schoolchildren are bing taught there are eight planets

      Actually, Bing-taught kids are learning that there are 13 ;P A search for "number of planets" returns the following quote from universetoday.com:

      "For those of us who believe dwarf planets should be counted as a subclass of planets, the latest status is that our solar system now has 13 planets: four terrestrial planets, four jovian planets, and five dwarf planets."

  2. Makes me want to shout by Tablizer · · Score: 3, Funny

    Yabbadabba Doo!

    --
    Table-ized A.I.
  3. Re:No News by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    Slow news my @55! Speak for yourself, bozo! So my good friend Fred Flintstone will finally be able to dump that stupid name "apatoburger" and refer to his favorite food once again by its proper rightful name.

  4. When was that again? by oodaloop · · Score: 4, Funny

    In, the U.S. Postal Service issued colorful dinosaur stamps

    That would be in 1989, according to 2 minutes of googlating. Good job, "editors"!

    --
    Tic-Tac-Toe, Global Thermonuclear War, and relationships all have the same winning move.
    1. Re:When was that again? by Minwee · · Score: 3, Funny

      He was implying that you hadn't the summary.

    2. Re:When was that again? by codeButcher · · Score: 2

      In, the U.S. Postal Service issued colorful dinosaur stamps

      That would be in 1989, according to 2 minutes of googlating. Good job, "editors"!

      I thought that perhaps the date was so far in the past that the slashcode had some sort of overflow or wraparound error. Something like "Dates before -6000 are invalid". I guess 1989 predates the creation of slashdot?

      --
      Free, as in your money being freed from the confines of your account.
    3. Re:When was that again? by Rei · · Score: 4, Informative

      What are you talking about? Every self-respecting nerd should know that they're still here.

      People need to stop picturing all dinosaurs as looking like some kind of leathery reptiles. I mean, we not only know now that velociraptor was feathered, but even how many secondary wing feathers it had (14). Jurassic park would have maybe not been as scary had their "raptors" looked like this. ;)

      Meanwhile, some of their descendants today look like this and attack like this.

      --
      Trump's plan to get rid of Mueller appears to be 'be so guilty of so many things that Mueller works himself to death.'
    4. Re:When was that again? by fahrbot-bot · · Score: 2

      Jurassic park would have maybe not been as scary had their "raptors" looked like this. ;)

      Regardless, velociraptors still hate goto statements ...

      --
      It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
    5. Re:When was that again? by steelfood · · Score: 2

      Large birds of prey used to dine on humans regularly. In fact, the largest of their modern cousins are still dangerous to infants and small children today (and I'm not talking about that fake video).

      Just because it looks more like a bird than a lizard doesn't make it any less scarier. In fact, because a part of our psyche is attuned towards the danger of very large birds of prey, it may make it more.

      --
      "If a nation expects to be ignorant and free in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be."
  5. Neat by jythie · · Score: 2

    While neither earth shattering nor life effecting, it is still kinda neat to watch the process of science and reexamination.

  6. Plutosaurus? by Tablizer · · Score: 2

    And if we can get Pluto designated a planet once again we'll be back to normal.

    "Normal" depends who you ask.

    --
    Table-ized A.I.
  7. Paging Dr. McCoy. by Minwee · · Score: 5, Funny

    In, the U.S.

    Uh oh. Sounds... like... wemayhavea... case... of.

    ...

    Shatner's Disease.

    Get... thismanto.. sick. Bay. Now!

  8. Jack Horner's TEDx talk by PhrostyMcByte · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Jack Horner put on an TEDx talk a while back discussing research that asks an interesting question: where are the babies?

    Jack's research indicates many of these similar species may in fact be the same, but merely at different levels of development -- an adolescent thought to be a difference species from one fully developed.

    The crux of it is that in the early days of our rediscovering dinosaurs, these guys would find a visual few differences in the dinos and name it as a new species, turning a blind eye to many similarities that might suggest otherwise.