The Brontosaurus makes a comeback

Illustration courtesy: Wikipedia

Tuesday, April 7, 2015, 7:42 PM - For years, scientists doubted the existence of the Brontosaurus -- but that's about to change.

Since 1903, academics have argued the Brontosaurus never really existed and was confused for the Apatosaurus, another long-necked dinosaur species.

But a new study published in PeerJ looked at several types of long-necked dinosaurs and found enough differences in its samples to consider the Brontosaurus a separate species.

ORIGINS OF THE BRONTOSAURUS MURKY

In the 1870s, crews excavated two partial long-necked dinosaur skeletons that were missing their heads. The first was named Apatosaurus ajax, or the 'deceptive lizard' and the second Brontosaurus excelsus, or 'noble thunder lizard.'

A few years later, another skeleton that possessed characteristics similar to both dinosaurs was found -- leading to the conclusion that the Brontosaurus was so similar to the Apatosaurus that it didn't actually exist.

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NEW TECHNOLOGY SHEDS NEW LIGHT ON THE EXISTENCE OF THE BRONTOSAURUS

 "Our research would not have been possible at this level of detail 15 or more years ago," study author Emanuel Tschopp said in a statement.

"In fact, until very recently, the claim that Brontosaurus was the same as Apatosaurus was completely reasonable, based on the knowledge we had."

The research team says the discovery of several dinosaurs similar to Apatosaurus and Brontosaurus have made it possible to conduct a detailed study on how different the two species really are.

The complete paper can be found online at PeerJ.

Source: PeerJ