a b Marsh, O. C. (1879). "Notice of new Jurassic reptiles" (PDF). American Journal of Science. 18 (108): 501–505. Bibcode: 1879AmJS...18..501M. doi: 10.2475/ajs.s3-18.108.501. S2CID 131001110.

Bakker, R. T. (1994). "The Bite of the Bronto". Earth. 3 (6): 26–33. Archived from the original on February 9, 2015. Almost all modern paleontologists agreed with Riggs that the two dinosaurs should be classified together in a single genus. According to the rules of the ICZN (which governs the scientific names of animals), the name Apatosaurus, having been published first, has priority as the official name; Brontosaurus was considered a junior synonym and was therefore long discarded from formal use. [43] [44] [45] [46] Despite this, at least one paleontologist– Robert T. Bakker–argued in the 1990s that A. ajax and A. excelsus were in fact sufficiently distinct for the latter to merit a separate genus. [47] a b c d e f Marsh, Othniel Charles (1896). The Dinosaurs of North America. U.S. Government Printing Office. Apatosaurus ajax was named by Marsh in 1877 after Ajax, a hero from Greek mythology. [50] Marsh designated the incomplete, juvenile skeleton YPM 1860 as its holotype. The species is less studied than Brontosaurus and A. louisae, especially because of the incomplete nature of the holotype. In 2005, many specimens in addition to the holotype were found assignable to A. ajax, YPM 1840, NSMT-PV 20375, YPM 1861, and AMNH 460. The specimens date from the late Kimmeridgian to the early Tithonian ages. [21] In 2015, only the A. ajax holotype YPM 1860 assigned to the species, with AMNH 460 found either to be within Brontosaurus, or potentially its own taxon. However, YPM 1861 and NSMT-PV 20375 only differed in a few characteristics, and cannot be distinguished specifically or generically from A. ajax. YPM 1861 is the holotype of "Atlantosaurus" immanis, which means it might be a junior synonym of A. ajax. [28]

Brachiosaurus

By the time that Museum paleontologist Walter Granger discovered a large set of fossilized bones at Wyoming’s Como Bluff in 1898, O. C. Marsh of Yale University had already characterized what he believed to be two distinct sauropod species: Apatosaurus and Brontosaurus. Granger believed his findings, catalogued as AMNH 460, to be Brontosaurus. a b Foster, John (2007). Jurassic West: The Dinosaurs of the Morrison Formation and Their World. Indiana University Press. pp.273–329. ISBN 978-0-253-34870-8. a b c d e f Upchurch, P.; Tomida, Y.; Barrett, P. M. (2005). "A new specimen of Apatosaurus ajax (Sauropoda: Diplodocidae) from the Morrison Formation (Upper Jurassic) of Wyoming, USA". National Science Museum Monographs. 26 (118): 1–156. ISSN 1342-9574. Griebeler, Eva Maria; Klein, Nicole; Sander, P. Martin (June 19, 2013). "Aging, Maturation and Growth of Sauropodomorph Dinosaurs as Deduced from Growth Curves Using Long Bone Histological Data: An Assessment of Methodological Constraints and Solutions". PLOS ONE. 8 (6): e67012. Bibcode: 2013PLoSO...867012G. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0067012. ISSN 1932-6203. PMC 3686781. PMID 23840575.

a b c d e f Bakker, R. T. (1998). "Dinosaur mid-life crisis: the Jurassic-Cretaceous transition in Wyoming and Colorado". In Lucas, Spencer G.; Kirkland, James I.; Estep, J. W. (eds.). Lower and Middle Cretaceous Terrestrial Ecosystems. Vol.14. New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science Bulletin. pp.67–77. a b Turner, C.E. and Peterson, F., (1999). "Biostratigraphy of dinosaurs in the Upper Jurassic Morrison Formation of the Western Interior, U.S.A." Pp. 77–114 in Gillette, D. D. (ed.), Vertebrate Paleontology in Utah. Utah Geological Survey Miscellaneous Publication 99-1.

Context Matters

There are stories of either Cope or Marsh telling their fossil collectors to smash skeletons that were still in the ground, just so the other guy couldn't get them," Lamanna tells Guy Raz, host of weekends on All Things Considered. "It was definitely a bitter, bitter rivalry." Osborn, H.F. 1906. The skeleton of Brontosaurus and the skull of Morosaurus. Nature. 1890 (73), 282-284 It used to be thought that the sauropods (like Brachiosaurus and Apatosaurus) and Stegosaurus had a second brain. Paleontologists now think that what they thought was a second brain was just an enlargement in the spinal cord in the hip area. This enlargement was larger than the animal’s tiny brain. For many, the Natural History Museum is a place that inspires learning, gives purpose and provides hope. People tell us they 'still get shivers walking through the front door', and thank us for inspiring the next generation of scientists. To reverse the damage we've done and protect the future, we need the knowledge that comes from scientific discovery. Understanding and protecting life on our planet is the greatest scientific challenge of our age. And you can help.

a b c d e f g Gilmore, C. W. (February 1936). "Osteology of Apatosaurus, with special references to specimens in the Carnegie Museum". Memoirs of the Carnegie Museum. 11 (4): 175–300. doi: 10.5962/p.234849. OCLC 16777126. S2CID 89649268. Brontosaurus". Lexico UK English Dictionary. Oxford University Press. Archived from the original on August 14, 2020.

Sinclair Oil Corporation has long been a fixture of American roads (and briefly in other countries) with its green dinosaur logo and mascot, a Brontosaurus. While Sinclair's early advertising included a number of different dinosaurs, eventually only Brontosaurus was used as the official logo, due to its popular appeal. [102] Gertie the Dinosaur (1914) The Bone Wars was the name given to a bitter competition between two paleontologists, Yale's O.C. Marsh and Edward Drinker Cope of Philadelphia. Lamanna says their mutual dislike, paired with their scientific ambition, led them to race dinosaur names into publication, each trying to outdo the other. And, of course, there was a question of the head. No one had ever discovered a Brontosaurus skull articulated or even associated with the rest of the skeleton. (And Earl Douglass’ discovery at Dinosaur National Monument was still four years away.) A skull had to be specially designed for the AMNH mount, and the New York museum followed Yale’s lead. Fastovsky, D. E.; Weishampel, D. B. (2009). Dinosaurs: A Concise Natural History (PDF). Cambridge University Press. pp.165–200. ISBN 978-0-521-88996-4.

Apatosaurus is a genus in the family Diplodocidae. It is one of the more basal genera, with only Amphicoelias and possibly a new, unnamed genus more primitive. Although the subfamily Apatosaurinae was named in 1929, the group was not used validly until an extensive 2015 study. Only Brontosaurus is also in the subfamily, with the other genera being considered synonyms or reclassified as diplodocines. Brontosaurus has long been considered a junior synonym of Apatosaurus; its type species was reclassified as A. excelsus in 1903. A 2015 study concluded that Brontosaurus is a valid genus of sauropod distinct from Apatosaurus, but not all paleontologists agree with this division. As it existed in North America during the late Jurassic, Apatosaurus would have lived alongside dinosaurs such as Allosaurus, Camarasaurus, Diplodocus, and Stegosaurus. Foster, John R.; Peterson, Joseph E. (September 1, 2016). "First report of Apatosaurus (Diplodocidae: Apatosaurinae) from the Cleveland-Lloyd Quarry in the Upper Jurassic Morrison Formation of Utah: Abundance, distribution, paleoecology, and taphonomy of an endemic North American sauropod clade". Palaeoworld. 25 (3): 431–443. doi: 10.1016/j.palwor.2015.11.006. ISSN 1871-174X. Topics of The Times: Leapin' Lizards!". The New York Times. October 11, 1989 . Retrieved June 8, 2008.But not everyone agreed that Brontosaurus—which means "thunder lizard" in Greek—was really an Apatosaurus. The name Brontosaurus lived on for decades in books and movies, until researchers in the 1970s showed that Brontosaurus and Apatosaurus had very similar skulls. The finding led even more people to stop using the title of Brontosaurus, practically dooming the name to extinction. Apatosaurus louisae was named by Holland in 1916, being first known from a partial skeleton that was found in Utah. [51] The holotype is CM 3018, with referred specimens including CM 3378, CM 11162, and LACM 52844. The former two consist of a vertebral column; the latter two consist of a skull and a nearly complete skeleton, respectively. Apatosaurus louisae specimens all come from the late Kimmeridgian of Dinosaur National Monument. [21] In 2015, Tschopp et al. found the type specimen of Apatosaurus laticollis to nest closely with CM 3018, meaning the former is likely a junior synonym of A. louisae. [28] a b c d Carpenter, Kenneth; Tidwell, Virginia (1998). "Preliminary Description of a Brachiosaurus Skull from Felch Quarry 1, Garden Park, Colorado". In Carpenter, Kenneth; Chure, Dan; Kirkland, James Ian (eds.). The Upper Jurassic Morrison Formation: an interdisciplinary study. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-90-5699-183-8.