Brontosaurus artistic reconstruction (Credits: Davide Bonadonna, Creative commons license CC- BY NC SA)

Brontosaurus artistic reconstruction (Credits: Davide Bonadonna, Creative commons license CC- BY NC SA)

While previously studies had suggested that Brontosaurus were the same species as Apatosaurus, a recent analysis has raised doubts about this.

Paleontologists applied new statistical approaches to fossils to calculate the differences between species and genera of similar dinosaurs such as the Diplodocus, the Apatosaurus and the Brontosaurus. The differences were large enough reinstate Brontosaurus as a distinct species from Apatosaurus.

Additional images and videos are available.

Original research paper published in Peer J on April 6, 2015.

Names and affiliations of selected authors

Emanuel Tschopp, GeoBioTec, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal