Brontosaurus finally gets its name back

http://goo.gl/KGEy8o

A victory for the Brontosaurus! One of the most iconic now has its name back in the history books, having regained its status as a unique genus and species. The reclassification appears to resolve a long-standing debate over what to do with Brontosaurus ("thunder lizard" in Greek), which looked a lot like the dinosaur Apatosaurus. This similarity caused paleontologists to rename Brontosaurus as Apatosaurus excelsus because is was considered to have been another type of Apatosaurus. Roger Benson, from the University of Oxford, and his colleagues used statistical approaches to calculate the differences between other species and genera of diplodocid dinosaurs. "The differences we found between Brontosaurus and Apatosaurus were at least as numerous as the ones between other closely related genera, and much more than what you normally find between species," Benson explained. Co-author Octávio Mateus stated, "It's the classic example of how science works. Especially when hypotheses are based on fragmentary fossils, it is possible for new finds to overthrow years of research." It is also now believed that the dinosaur probably had a head similar to that of Diplodocus thanks to this study. Way to be, Brontosaurus! You do you! #MWTG325