
Brontosaurus dino name is revived - tellarin
http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-32205289
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themartorana
_" But the name Brontosaurus is still known by several generations of
schoolchildren. It's not entirely clear why the name stuck, but it may be to
do with its origins in the Bone Wars, when there was intense public interest
in the discovery of new dinosaurs."_

I'm glad they addressed this in the article. I read the headline and was like
"Whaaaaat?" I did not know the name "Brontosaurus" was not valid! I was born
in the late '70s but still, that's half a century after this happened.

~~~
Crito
Dinosaur books for children in libraries across the country (public or school)
are frequently quite old, or at least out of date.

Not terribly surprising when you consider it is a topic that sits on the very
edge of human knowledge, but so often attracts the interests of children. Same
problem exists for space books. When I was a kid I had a few space books that
referred to men "one day" landing on the moon. This was 20 years after that
had actually happened.

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PhantomGremlin
In 1965, there was a giant _Dinoland_ exhibit at the NY World's Fair. The
Brontosaurus was a "big" (heh, heh) feature.[1] That was viewed by millions of
visitors from all around the world. So, even if scientists decided in 1903 to
deprecate it, obviously not everyone agreed.

I had one of these plastic molded Brontosaurs as a kid:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:The_Childrens_Museum_of_I...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:The_Childrens_Museum_of_Indianapolis_-
_Sinclair_Dinoland_plastic_Brontosaurus.jpg)

IIRC you got to watch the moulding machine at the fair make it for you once
you put your $0.50 into it.

Edit: forgot to add, in the 1960s in primetime, and in syndication for much
longer, Fred Flintstone operated a "bronto-crane". I'm sure that had a lot to
do with keeping Brontosaurus active in kid's imaginations.

[1] [http://nywf64.com/sinclair06.shtml](http://nywf64.com/sinclair06.shtml)
[2]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Flintstones#The_Flintstone...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Flintstones#The_Flintstones)

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rdtsc
I recommend the book "Bully For Brontosaurus" by Stephen Jay Gould.

It is a fun book from the early 90s or so, I got it as a random present, and
enjoy reading it.

It talks a bit about popularisation of science and what it means. Has some
interesting stories from history of biology, evolution. One relevant set of
articles is on Dinomania -- the sudden and unexpected popularity of dinosaurs,
specifically with a short story called "Bully For Brontosaurus" (same title as
the book). The story kind of disects how Brontosaurus was a fought over label,
and of course the Appatosaurus advocates won. The story ends with "I retreat
not with a bang of thunder, but with a whimper of hope that rectification may
someday arise from the ashes of my stamp album".

If Steven were alive, he would have been happy to know that indeed
rectification did happen!

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gohrt
Brontosaurus's scientific acceptance flips back and forth as much as margarine
nutrition.

Previous reversals:
[https://hn.algolia.com/?query=%09Brontosaurus%20&sort=byPopu...](https://hn.algolia.com/?query=%09Brontosaurus%20&sort=byPopularity&prefix&page=0&dateRange=all&type=story)

~~~
KineticLensman
Or dwarf planets:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dwarf_planet#Contention](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dwarf_planet#Contention)

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chris_wot
Brontosaurus is my favourite dinosaur name.

Except for blind dinosaurs, or _Doyouthinkhesaurus_.

~~~
function_seven
1) Agreed. Something about the way it sounds. Somehow the name sounds like the
dinosaur looks. _Wayy_ better than "Apatosaurus"

2) I'm kinda slow, and admit it took a full minute before I got that joke.

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serge2k
Have you really never seen Jurassic Park?

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function_seven
Funny you ask. I saw it once, in the theater when it came out. But that
happened to be my first date, and I spent the entire movie awkwardly making
out with her. 20+ years later and I still haven't actually watched that movie.

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mrfusion
I still say pterodactyl too. But for some reason I shouldn't be. And also
you're not allowed to call the ocean dinosaurs dinosaurs.

