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Brontosaurus

Brontosaurus [1] is a genus of sauropod dinosaur.

Brontosaurus
Temporal range: Upper Jurassic
154–150 mya
Brontosaurus Yale Peabody cropped.jpg
Holotype specimen of B. excelsus
Peabody Museum of Natural History
Scientific classification
Kingdom:
Animalia
Class:
Sauropsida
Subclass:
Archosauria
Superorder:
Dinosauria
Order:
Saurischia
Suborder:
†Sauropodomorpha
Family:
†Diplodocidae
Type species
Brontosaurus excelsus

Brontosaurus was originally named by its discoverer Othniel Charles Marsh in 1879. Brontosaurus had long been considered a junior synonym of Apatosaurus. Its only species was reclassified as A. excelsus in 1903.

However, an extensive study published in 2015 concluded that Brontosaurus was a valid genus of sauropod distinct from Apatosaurus.[2]

Brontosaurus is a member of the family Diplodocidae, a clade of gigantic sauropod dinosaurs. The family includes some of the longest creatures ever to walk the earth, including Diplodocus, Supersaurus, and Barosaurus. Brontosaurus is closely related to Apatosaurus in the subfamily Apatosaurinae.[2]

Brontosaurus Media

  • Illustration of a Brontosaurus skeleton by Othniel Charles Marsh (d. 1899). Head is based on material now assigned to Brachiosaurus sp.

  • Annual report of the American Museum of Natural History for the year (1901) (18426246345)

  • Infographic explaining the history of Brontosaurus and Apatosaurus according to Tschopp et al. 2015

  • The sculpted "Brontosaurus" skull of the Yale Peabody Museum mount, which was based on fossils Camarasaurus and Brachiosaurus.

  • U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY *SIXTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT PART I PL. XXI *BRONTOSAURUS EXCELSUS. *Jurassic.

  • Scale chart comparing the sizes of the major species/specimens of the sauropod dinosaur Apatosaurus with Brontosaurus and a human. Scaled based on skeletal diagrams by Scott Hartman, illustrations by Matthew P. Martyniuk.

  • Reconstruction of Brontosaurus excelsus.

  • Skeleton of the AMNH apatosaurine (possibly B. excelsus, specimen AMNH 460) as remounted in 1995

  • Left front limb of B. yahnahpin, Morrison Natural History Museum

  • Cast of B. parvus specimen UWGM 15556 at Tellus Science Museum

  • Gertie the Dinosaur (1914)

References

  1. ↑ meaning "thunder lizard" (from Greek brontē = thunder + sauros = lizard)
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Tschopp E; Mateus O.V. & Benson R.B.J. 2015. A specimen-level phylogenetic analysis and taxonomic revision of Diplodocidae (Dinosauria, Sauropoda). PeerJ 3: e857. [1]


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