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The biggest animal ever to have walked on Earth were the long - necked , long - taileddinosaursknown as sauropod , and the most famous of these giants was likelyBrontosaurus , the " thunder lizard . " For more than a C , scientists stopped using the genus nameBrontosaurus , but in 2015 , researchers suggested it was time to " resurrect " it . So why wasBrontosaurusbrought back from the utter , so to utter ?
The skeleton of a long - necked , long - tailed dinosaur was unearthed in Wyoming by paleontologist Othniel Charles Marsh in 1879,according to the Natural History Museum in London . At the meter , scientist dubbed the jumbo plant eater , which know during the Jurassic full point about 150 million age ago , Brontosaurus excelsus , according to Yale University .
Brontosaurus was a long-necked sauropod dinosaur.
However , in 1903 , paleontologist Elmer Riggs found thatB. excelsuswas very similar to another dinosaur , Apatosaurus ajax , which Marsh discovered in Colorado in 1877 , the Natural History Museum noted . The differences between the dinosaur appeared so minor that scientists decided it was well to place them both in the same genus , or group of mintage . BecauseApatosauruswas name first , the rule of scientific appointment kept its name , leading scientist to retire the nameBrontosaurus .
pertain : What ’s the populace ’s large dinosaur ?
More than 100 twelvemonth later , researcherssuggested revivingBrontosaurusas its own genus . A2015 studyof sauropods in the diary PeerJ found that the originalApatosaurusandBrontosaurusfossils may have been unlike enough to sort out them as separate groups .
Brontosaurus was a long-necked sauropod dinosaur.
The nearly 300 - page subject field examine 477 physical features of 81 sauropod specimen . The initial purpose of the research was to analyze the relationships between the coinage make up the family of sauropods known as Diplodocidae , which includesDiplodocus , Apatosaurusand , now , Brontosaurus .
All in all , the scientists found thatBrontosaurus’neck was higher - jell , narrower and smaller thanApatosaurus ' , study booster cable authorEmanuel Tschopp , a vertebrate paleontologist now at the University of Hamburg in Germany , told Live Science . They suggested three known species ofBrontosaurus : B. excelsus , B. parvusandB. yahnahpin .
" They callBrontosaurus’resurrected,'“Jacques Gauthier , curator of reptiles at the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History , who did not participate in this study . " I care the ring of that . ' Restored ' is a utterly correct full term , but ' upraise ' is the official verbal description of what they have done . "
Tschopp noted that they could not have made this discovery 15 or more years before their field of study ; only recently did finding of dinosaur like toApatosaurusandBrontosaurushelp reveal what made these mathematical group unique .
It has been nearly a decade since the report published , and Tschopp noted that " not everybody accepts such proposal immediately . There have been — and still are — researchers who do n’t believe the results quite yet and cover to use the nameApatosaurusfor what I callBrontosaurus . "
— Why did T. rex have such tiny arms ?
— What colour were the dinosaurs ?
— How long do species take to evolve ?
Mike Taylor , a vertebrate fossilist at the University of Bristol in England who did not take part in the 2015 study , told Live Science in an email , " you seldom get consensus from palaeontologist on these matters , so the answer you get will bet on who you necessitate . There ’s been no pushback in the formal literature , but I ’ve heard a bit of grumbling . "
Still , to Taylor , the call to " resurrect"Brontosaurus"just finger like a reasonable matter to do . " He noted that the 2015 subject field " made a solid argument that most specialists find pretty persuasive and not especially surprising . " Taylor and his colleagues have mentionedB. excelsusandB. parvusin their ownstudiesa number of times .
