sovay: (Cho Hakkai: intelligence)
sovay ([personal profile] sovay) wrote2015-04-07 10:25 pm

Could I just say, Chris, for one moment, that I have a new theory about the Brontosaurus?

More than a century after being declared a junior synonym of Apatosaurus and demoted from the majesty of the thunder lizard to the lesser mellifluity of deception, Brontosaurus turns out to exist as a valid genus after all.

The resulting cladogram recovers the classical arrangement of diplodocid relationships. Two numerical approaches were used to increase reproducibility in our taxonomic delimitation of species and genera. This resulted in the proposal that some species previously included in well-known genera like Apatosaurus and Diplodocus are generically distinct. Of particular note is that the famous genus Brontosaurus is considered valid by our quantitative approach.

The original paper is freely available here. I don't know if this means Othniel Charles Marsh won the Bone Wars after all, but my five-year-old self who owned many small rubber dinosaurs (and one very dear mosasaur) feels vindicated. My mother wants to know if this means the ruling on Pluto is due to be reversed, too.
gwynnega: (Default)

[personal profile] gwynnega 2015-04-08 03:49 am (UTC)(link)
I will go listen to "Brontosaurus" by the Move in celebration.


zdenka: A bird made of flowers. (cheerful)

[personal profile] zdenka 2015-04-08 04:07 am (UTC)(link)
That makes me irrationally happy. Brontosaurus is a much cooler name, anyway.
spatch: (Default)

[personal profile] spatch 2015-04-08 04:13 am (UTC)(link)
Someone on MetaFilter pointed out that "Apatosaurus Burger" didn't have the same ring to it, either.

[identity profile] martianmooncrab.livejournal.com 2015-04-08 09:35 am (UTC)(link)
I was going to say something about not having to change episodes of The Flintstones from Bronto Burgers to ApataPatties..

[identity profile] snowy-owlet.livejournal.com 2015-04-08 12:36 pm (UTC)(link)
This morning on NPR, one of the scientists in the story said, "blah blah di blah genera."

And Steve Inskeep said, "Genre!"

It was awfully early for me to get that much cursing in.

[identity profile] cucumberseed.livejournal.com 2015-04-08 01:24 pm (UTC)(link)
I was excited to hear about that as well! I hope it holds up to review.
selidor: (happy astronomer)

[personal profile] selidor 2015-04-08 03:24 pm (UTC)(link)
Love how they did it, too. for SCIENCE!

Pluto's status isn't going anywhere (*cough* professional hat *cough*). However, all those who'd like to see particular names on Pluto, Charon and friends should go here. The mission team are keen for more submissions (and votes!) - the themes include Underworld myth, explorers, and sf/f writers who have set stories in the Pluto system.
gwynnega: (John Hurt Raskolnikov 2)

[personal profile] gwynnega 2015-04-08 08:11 pm (UTC)(link)
Here it is. The Move is one of my favorite groups (though this isn't actually in my top 20 of their songs). Still, they get points for the title!

[identity profile] ladymondegreen.livejournal.com 2015-04-08 08:42 pm (UTC)(link)
This is immensely pleasing news. My inner child feels vindicated.

Clearly when we figure out how to recreate the Brontosaurus population, their destination planet will be the terraformed Pluto.

Or some other similar SFnal fate. :)

[identity profile] ethelmay.livejournal.com 2015-04-08 11:52 pm (UTC)(link)
Ereškigal's on Venus. How confusing.

Ereškiguys are from Mars, Ereškigals are from Venus. Easy-peasy.

[identity profile] martianmooncrab.livejournal.com 2015-04-09 04:16 am (UTC)(link)
I will stay true to Bronto's... (says the girl who named her first dog Dino)

[identity profile] nineweaving.livejournal.com 2015-04-10 03:16 am (UTC)(link)
Awww.

Nine