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El Reg reports Besmirched brontosaurus brought back into being by brilliant Britons' bone boffinry breakthrough
In 1879, [...] paleontologist Othniel Charles Marsh named a collection of bones a brontosaurus, or Thunder Lizard, and described a massive herbivore with a long neck and tail that wandered across the plains of what is now America.
[...]within a couple of decades, the existence of the Thunder Lizard was called into question and the scientific community decided that the stumbled-upon brontosaurus was just an adolescent apatosaurus. There then followed a 100-year campaign to expunge the word brontosaurus from textbooks, but the name proved just too popular.
Now, a study looking at the largest range of fossils of the genus has shown that the brontosaurus was a distinct genus. While the dino does have strong similarities to the apatosaurus, there are enough differences to separate the two, the study's authors concluded.
[...]The initial argument for the non-existence of the brontosaurus was down to its sacrum bones, which link the tail to the base of the spine. The first Thunder Lizard found had five of these, compared to the apatosaurus' three, but it was assumed that the brontosaurus bones were young and would have merged together to form these three bones.
But as more and more specimens were found, this theory started to look a little off. That was reinforced by other fossil evidence, so the new study turned to statistics to find out what was going on.
[...]It's not a done deal yet however. The International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature will have to rule on the matter.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 08 2015, @03:52PM
> I'm sure it was a fairly intelligent dinosaur
Hey there mighty brontosaurus
Don't you have a message for us
You thought your rule would always last
There were no lessons in your past
You were built three stories high
They say you would not hurt a fly
If we explode the atom bomb
Would they say that we were dumb?
(Score: 3, Informative) by GeminiDomino on Wednesday April 08 2015, @07:47PM
Wow, you don't get Police lyrics very often these days. Well done.
"We've been attacked by the intelligent, educated segment of our culture"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 08 2015, @11:21PM
More proof that there is no one under the age of 30 on this site and very few under the age of 40...
(Score: 2) by GeminiDomino on Thursday April 09 2015, @05:39AM
You say that like it's a) actually true and b) a bad thing.
"We've been attacked by the intelligent, educated segment of our culture"
(Score: 2) by Jeremiah Cornelius on Wednesday April 08 2015, @11:21PM
When the world is running down,
You make the best of what's still around.
Could add that to everything that's happened in the past 15-20 years....
You're betting on the pantomime horse...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 09 2015, @12:36AM
> Could add that to everything that's happened in the past 15-20 years....
Every year ever.