QuickCheck: Did the brontosaurus exist?

Outdated 1897 restoration by Charles R. Knight of B. excelsus submerged in water, and Diplodocus dragging its tail. - CC BY-SA 3.0

BELOVED by legendary cartoon character Fred Flintstone for being part of a very tasty burger, the dinosaur called brontosaurus isn't an actual animal that existed in the past.

Is this true?

Verdict:

TRUE

Brontosaurus (which means "thunder lizard" in latin) was first described by the esteemed palaeontologist Othniel Charles Marsh, who discovered a fairly complete fossil skeleton of a sauropod at the Morrison Formation at Como Bluff, Wyoming in the United States in 1897.

Sauropods were a group of quadripedal herbivorous dinosaurs that were some of the largest land animals that ever lived and had very long necks and tails.

However, when describing his find, Marsh had unknowingly associated the skull of an already described sauropod (camarasaurus) to the body of another sauropod called the apatosaurus.

The mistake was discovered in 1903 but it was not until 1979 that the last museum corrected its skeleton.

However, the brontosaurus proved to be a very successful "dinosaur" in pop culture with many references to the dinosaur being made in TV shows and movies (for example, Fred Flintsone and his bronto-burgers).

This in turn has led some present-day palaeontologists to try to resurrect and save the name along with its dinosaur.

However, until a consensus can be reached in the scientific world, the name "brontosaurus" remains consigned to the history books as a case of misidentification.

References:

1. http://www.miketaylor.org.uk/tmp/Riggs-1903_Structure%20and%20relationships%20of%20opisthocoelian%20dinosaurs.%20Part%20I.%20Apatosaurus%20Marsh.pdf

2. https://dinosours.wordpress.com/2014/10/30/bully-for-camarasaurus/

3. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4393826

4. Photo by Charles R. Knight. - CC BY-SA 3.0