BRONTOSAURUS
Apatosaurus is an extinct genus of sauropod dinosaurs that lived in North America during the Late Jurassic period. It was originally described in 1877 when Othniel Charles Marsh named the first known species, Apatosaurus ajax, and several more species have been discovered since. Brontosaurus is now considered a junior synonym of Apatosaurus, its only species having been reclassified as A. excelsus. The average length of an Apatosaurus was 22.8 m (75 ft), and their average weight was at least 16.4 metric tons (18.1 short tons). (More from Wikipedia)
Interestingly enough, the iconic dinosaur Brontosaurus referenced in the biggest American hit by the Piltdown Men, “Brontosaurus Stomp” is also a mixed-up fossil; though in this case, unlike the Piltdown Man, it was unintentional. The largest dinosaur skeleton found up to that point in time (1879) became the first mounted sauropod (in 1905 at the Peabody Museum at Yale University) and was described as being Brontosaurus. Despite being nearly complete, the skeleton was missing the skull, so one was provided from another dinosaur called Camarasaurus (the actual head turned out to be more like that of Brontosaurus’ cousin, Diplodocus). However, subsequent scientific investigation very early in the 20th Century revealed that this skeleton (sans the wrong head) was actually an adult example of the Apatosaurus, which had been discovered and described two years earlier using a juvenile example; “Brontosaurus” was then demoted to a synonym. Still, every dinosaur book I looked through as a kid had the “thunder lizard” pictured and described along with Stegosaurus, Tyrannosaurus rex,Triceratops, and all the rest.
(October 2010)
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There are several videos by the Piltdown Men on YouTube, though it is certainly not surprising that all are audio-only; the band was anonymous after all. Their big hit “Brontosaurus Stomp” is available at: www.youtube.com/watch?v=xiQ_s_vM3Nw&feature=related ; there is also a slide show with shots of the “thunder lizard” on display.
(October 2012)
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Note: Research made and published in 2015 suggests that Brontosaurus might be a separate species from Apatosaurus after all.
(February 2017)
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But I likely will keep putting out what I call the “Story of the Month” (I have my web pages broken down into short “Items” and longer “Stories” on whomever or whatever I am talking about) that I uncover as I load up the web site. These Stories are on well known (well, better known anyway) songs and albums and rock bands and other topics that are not of the Under Appreciated variety. I started those last year and meant to list the ones in my year-end post last time but forgot, so here is that list from the past two years:
December 2013 – The Standells
January 2014 – (skipped)
February 2014 – Hasil Adkins
March 2014 – Bobby Darin
April 2014 – Nuggets
May 2014 – The Nerves
June 2014 – The Outsiders (American band)
July 2014 – The Million Dollar Quartet
August 2014 – Scientific Proof of the Existence of God
September 2014 – The Piltdown Man and Brontosaurus
October 2014 – Walter/Wendy Carlos
November 2014 – The Trashmen
December 2014 – John Birch Society Blues
January 2015 – John Mellencamp
February 2015 – Child Is Father to the Man
March 2015 – Dion DiMucci
July 2015 – “Lola”
August 2015 – Bob Dylan the Protest Singer
(Year 6 Review)
