Brontosaurus

History & Fossils ~ ~ ~ ~

It’s a dinosaur everyone has heard the name of, yet for around 100 years the genus was considered an invalid genus. Brontosaurus was discovered during the Bone Wars, a rivalry between Edward Drinker Cope and Othniel Charles Marsh. The two had a fierce rivalry and sought to one-up each other constantly, leading to sloppy work and claims that later paleontologists would have to polish, debunk, and remake. Many years later, Elma Riggs re-examined the femur discovered for Brontosaurus and discovered that it was very similar to Apatosaurus, so the genus Brontosaurus B. excelsus became Apatosaurus B. excelsus. In 2015, A massive study was released on sauropods, and it was found that Brontosaurus was different enough to be a valid genus, but there may have been multiple species of them.