Brontosaurus versus Apatosaurus


"dinosaur" stamps. (I put "dinosaur" in quotes, because one of the featured animals was Pteranodon, which is not a dinosaur, see my article "What Do You Mean, It's Not a Dinosaur?" for more information.) The name Brontosaurus was used in the stamps, and quite a few people upbraided the Postal Service for using the incorrect name. The Postal Service's reasoning was that everyone knew what a Brontosaurus was, but who knew what an Apatosaurus was?

After this uproar, now you can look in most popular books about dinosaurs, and see that the name Apatosaurus is used, with a note that it used to be called Brontosaurus.

For more information, read Stephen Jay Gould's article "Bully for Brontosaurus" in the February 1990 issue of Natural History or in his book, Bully for Brontosaurus.

Be sure to visit my website for more links to museums that feature paleontology.

The copyright of the article Brontosaurus versus Apatosaurus in Paleontology is owned by Beverly Eschberger. Permission to republish Brontosaurus versus Apatosaurus in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

Go To Page: 1 2 3

Articles in this Topic    Discussions in this Topic