But the tables have turned:
Researchers from Portugal and the United Kingdom have evaluated eighty-one diplodocid fossils—including specimens of Apatosaurus ajax (the first described apatosaurus) and Apatosaurus excelsus (the dinosaur formerly known as brontosaurus)—for a total of four hundred and seventy-seven morphological characteristics. “The differences we found between Brontosaurus and Apatosaurus were at least as numerous as the ones between other closely related genera, and much more than what you normally find between species,” Roger Benson, a professor of paleobiology at Oxford University, said....
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21 comments:
Now it's time to reinstate Pluto.
Pluto is still Mickey's dog. Every mouse should have a dog.
My favorite dinosaur was the brontosaurus. It was my son's favorite as well.
Collateral damage: Stephen Jay Gould's disappointment with the loss of Brontosaurus drove him to commit academic fraud.
Even the fossil record isn't cast in stone:
"If these old bones could talk."
But but, the science was settled!
Nobody on The Flintstones ever ate an Apato Burger and I considered the matter closed.
I was pleased to read this the other day, but the fact is that they never should have changed the name. We grew up calling the big long-necked long-tailed dinosaur brontosaurus, and no technical rules for naming fossils should have undermined that. When I gave my granddaughters plush stuffed dinosaurs, I did not introduce that one as apatosaurus. As Gould said, "Bully for Brontosaurus!"
I KNEW IT. I KNEW IT.
brontastastic
Eric beat me to it.
Scientists have progressed to discovering patterns in their cereal flakes.
I believe one plays for the Patriots...or is that the Gronkosaurus?
Brontosaurus will win out regardless. Even if you call it apatosaur, everyone else will call it Brontosaurus.
Pluto is also still a planet.
Scientists aren't in charge of language, they just make recommendations. We use the words we wish to use and the meanings of those words are what we say that they are.
I also call it water, not hydrogen hydroxide. We trump scientists.
robother said...
Collateral damage: Stephen Jay Gould's disappointment with the loss of Brontosaurus drove him to commit academic fraud.
Ha!
The brontosaurus is from Bombay, the Apatosaurus is from Mumbai.
But surely the hypothetical 'Fordism' is just that, the writer's imagination? I notice nobody here has mentioned their Fordist attachment to Brontosaurus.
The brontosaurus is from Bombay, the Apatosaurus is from Mumbai.
I like that.
Now if we could get Ceylon instead of Sri Lanka and Persia over Iran.
The reverse happened a few years ago with Triceratops (another favorite of us ordinary folks) and Torosaurus.
For years, scientists thought that these were two different species. Now some (but not all) paleontologists believe that Torosaurus is just an older Triceratops, with large holes in its frill that develop later in age.
The basic issue is the definition of "species." We consider two groups of animals to be distinct species if they don't interbreed. But obviously we can't watch dinosaurs mating, so which ones interbred is guesswork from the fossils. We guess that two different animals won't interbreed if they have such different sizes and shapes.
If E.T. landed on Earth from another planet, he might think that poodles and Great Danes are two different species because they look so different.
I'd never heard of this controversy, but then my total academic "creds" (as us "wonks" like to say) is through an exhaustive study of The Flintstones and watching Jurassic Park twice and reading the book once.
kzookitty
And didn't a prehistoric Elmer Fudd have a pet brontosaurus?
Case closed.
kzookitty
The news comes just in time to fire up the grill. I'm having a bronto-burger. And some of those huge ribs that can tip your car over.
This is good. Researchers are re-examining old knowledge and reanalyzing it in the context of what's been discovered since then. This is exactly the way science is supposed to work.
While I'm personally inclined to rooting for "brontosaurus" to re-enter the lexicon, it really doesn't matter one way or another. What matters is that the knowledge is refined. And that's a positive for paleontology, no matter what the result ends up being.
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