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 They unveiled on Tuesday an exhaustive analysis of Brontosaurus
remains, first unearthed in the 1870s, and those of closely related
dinosaurs, determining that the immense, long-necked plant-eater was
not an Apatosaurus and deserved its old name back.
Paleontologist Emanuel Tschopp of Portugal's Universidade Nova de
Lisboa cited important anatomical differences including Apatosaurus
possessing a wider neck than Brontosaurus and being even more
massively built.
"The differences between Apatosaurus and Brontosaurus are numerous
enough to revive Brontosaurus as a separate genus from Apatosaurus,"
Tschopp said.
Brontosaurus, which lived in North America around 150 million years
ago in the Jurassic Period, was about 72 feet (22 meters) long and
weighed about 40 tons.
 "Brontosaurus and T. rex are the two most popular dinosaur names
ever," said Universidade Nova de Lisboa paleontologist Octávio
Mateus. "Even 112 years after paleontologists considered it invalid,
the name Brontosaurus still echoes in the popular culture. It was
indeed a very cool dinosaur name."
"This will be like recovering Pluto as a planet again," Mateus
added, referring to astronomers' 2006 decision to downgrade Pluto
from a full-fledged planet to a dwarf planet.
After his team excavated fossils of two huge long-necked dinosaurs,
prolific 19th century paleontologist Othniel Charles Marsh named the
first one Apatosaurus ("deceptive lizard") in 1877 and the second
one Brontosaurus ("thunder lizard") in 1879.
In 1903, paleontologist Elmer Riggs declared that Brontosaurus and
Apatosaurus were too similar for each to be considered a separate
genus. Because Apatosaurus was named first, under the rules of
scientific naming it supplanted Brontosaurus.
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But the name was so popular it survived its burial, with
"Brontosaurus" and things like "Bronto Burgers" appearing in
numerous books, cartoons, movies and elsewhere.
Brontosaurus belonged to a group of dinosaurs with long necks and
tails and pillar-like legs called sauropods that included Earth's
largest land animals ever.
This study, published in the scientific journal PeerJ, focused on
the anatomy and relationships among a category of sauropods called
diplodocids, which includes Brontosaurus, Apatosaurus, Diplodocus
and others.
"I remember finding out that Brontosaurus was actually called
Apatosaurus as a child," University of Oxford paleontologist Roger
Benson said. "It didn't seem right, and I think a lot of people will
secretly be pleased that Bronto is back again."
(Reporting by Will Dunham; Editing by Sandra Maler)
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