WEBVTT - BrainStuff Classics: Did the Brontosaurus Exist?

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to brain Stuff production of I Heart Radio. Hey,

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<v Speaker 1>brain Stuff, I'm Lauren Vogelbaum, and this is a classic

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<v Speaker 1>episode from our erstwhile host, Christian Sager. It concerns the

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<v Speaker 1>murky mysteries of prehistoric animals and the even murkier motivations

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<v Speaker 1>of some of the people who have hunted their fossils. Hey,

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<v Speaker 1>great stuff, it's Christian Sager. So our question for the

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<v Speaker 1>day is did the Brontosaurus exist? And the short answer, yeah,

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<v Speaker 1>it sure did. But like so many answers, this one

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<v Speaker 1>spawns a lot more questions. Is that really its correct name?

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<v Speaker 1>How is it related to the apatosaurus? Wasn't it given

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<v Speaker 1>the wrong skull? And if it did exist, was it delicious?

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<v Speaker 1>Let's back up, We're gonna go to eighteen seventy seven.

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<v Speaker 1>The confusion over the Brontosaurus stems partially from confusion in

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<v Speaker 1>biological taxonomy, but also from a bitter rivalry of paleontologists.

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<v Speaker 1>That's right, a rivalry between friends turned enemies whose battle

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<v Speaker 1>for fame and power destroyed them. Both meet both Neil

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<v Speaker 1>Charles marsh and Edward Drinker cope everything about giving your

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<v Speaker 1>kid a middle name like Drinker. They became good enough

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<v Speaker 1>friends while studying natural history together that in the eighteen

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<v Speaker 1>sixties they even named newly discovered fossils after each other.

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<v Speaker 1>But Marsh was ambitious, like Slytherin ambitious. When Cope showed

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<v Speaker 1>him around a fossil quarry in Camaraderie, Marsh struck a

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<v Speaker 1>deal with the quarry owner behind Cope's back. All the

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<v Speaker 1>fossils found there and the profits attached to them went

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<v Speaker 1>straight to Marsh, and it sparked what history calls the

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<v Speaker 1>bone Wars. This was a fiery race to find and

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<v Speaker 1>published papers about new ancient creatures. One of these creatures

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<v Speaker 1>was the Apatosaurus a jacks, a huge plant eater with

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<v Speaker 1>a long neck and all that Marsh discovered in eighteen

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<v Speaker 1>seventy seven. The skeleton was incomplete, but Marsh wanted the

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<v Speaker 1>credit for finding it, so he slapped on the head

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<v Speaker 1>of another dinosaur found nearby, a Chimarasaurus, in his published reconstruction.

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<v Speaker 1>Then in eighteen eighty five, Marsha's fossil collectors sent him

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<v Speaker 1>a set of bones belonging to a larger, long necked,

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<v Speaker 1>long tailed herbivore, a more complete set. Marsh decided it

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<v Speaker 1>was a different animal and published his discovery of the

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<v Speaker 1>Brontosaurus excels Us. His illustration of its skeleton was the

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<v Speaker 1>first dinosaur sketch to receive wide lay circulation, and it

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<v Speaker 1>caught the public's imagination. His haste was understandable. Cope was

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<v Speaker 1>battling Marsha's superior connections by practicing what's been called taxonomic

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<v Speaker 1>carpet bombing. He would publish fourteen hundred articles in his

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<v Speaker 1>fifty six years. The two former das slandered and sabotaged

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<v Speaker 1>each other into financial and reputational ruin. Our friends over

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<v Speaker 1>its stuff you missed in history class, actually did a

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<v Speaker 1>whole podcast two part in it if you want a

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<v Speaker 1>deeper dive. But back to the Brontosaurus. Shortly after Cope

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<v Speaker 1>and Marsha's deaths, a paleontologist studying Marsha's work noticed that

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<v Speaker 1>the Apatosaurus and the Brontosaurus skeletons were really similar, So

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<v Speaker 1>similar that the scientific community deemed the Brontosaurus excels Us

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<v Speaker 1>an adult specimen of the Apatosaurus genus. So in nineteen

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<v Speaker 1>o three, Brontosaurus lost its official status, but museums, it seems,

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<v Speaker 1>didn't get the memo. Starting in nineteen o five, the

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<v Speaker 1>Saura pods started seeing display around the world labeled Brontosaurus

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<v Speaker 1>excels us, sometimes with a Camarasaurus head. It wasn't until

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<v Speaker 1>the nineteen nineties that these pervasive mistakes were corrected at large.

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<v Speaker 1>But the story or doesn't end there. In April of

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<v Speaker 1>a group led by paleontologist Emmanuel Chop published a study

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<v Speaker 1>analyzing eighty one sauropod specimens, including precise measurements of four

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<v Speaker 1>hundred and seventy seven different physical features. According to their findings,

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<v Speaker 1>they reported not only that Marsha's Brontosaurus excelsis skeleton had

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<v Speaker 1>enough differences to be considered its own species, but that

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<v Speaker 1>there should be two additional specimens in the Brontosaurus genus.

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<v Speaker 1>For now, the Brontosaurus isn't back for sure. It's up

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<v Speaker 1>to the scientific community to come to a consensus on

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<v Speaker 1>whether Brontosaurus and a Patosaurus deserve their own separate genera.

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<v Speaker 1>But the thunder lizard certainly wasn't a fake. Marsh was

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<v Speaker 1>just kind of a jerk. Oh, I love this one. Uh.

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<v Speaker 1>Today's episode was written by me and produced by Tyler clayg.

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<v Speaker 1>Brain Stuff is production of I Heart Radio's host that

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<v Speaker 1>Works for More In this lots of other topics you

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