Brontosaurus: The Pluto of the Dinosaur World
As a child obsessed with dinosaurs, the rug was pulled out from under me when I read an article about the history of the noble brontosaurus. It said that in the dinosaur-excavation-craze of the late 19th century, a pile of bones was misidentified as a new beast (the brontosaurus) when, instead, it was a simple, totally-old-and-lame Apatosaurus. When asked "What's your favorite dinosaur?" not a single child EVER answered, "Apatosaurus - for SURE!" No! Tyrannosaurus, Triceratops, Pterodactyl, Plesiosauria - these were the first animals out of the mouth of any 8-year-old. I'll even give you Archaeopteryx... but that one was just the favorite of the young hipster. Just as Pluto is no longer considered a planet, the Brontosaurus has been taken off the list of late Jurassic thunder lizards.
My childhood was a lie.
Grieve not, brontosaurus fans! Scientists around the world are reevaluating sauropod artifacts, and they have come to some interesting conclusions about our friend, the brontosaurus.