brontosaurus

American  

[bron-tuh-sawr-uhs] / ˌbrɒn təˈsɔr əs /

noun

plural

brontosauruses, brontosauri

1. brontosaur.

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brontosaurus British  

/ ˌbrɒntəˈsɔːrəs, ˈbrɒntəˌsɔː /

noun

1. any very large herbivorous quadrupedal dinosaur of the genus Apatosaurus , common in North America during Jurassic times, having a long neck and long tail: suborder Sauropoda (sauropods)

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brontosaurus Scientific  

/ brŏn′tə-sôr′əs /

1. An earlier name for apatosaurus

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Brontosaurus Cultural  

1. A large herbivorous (see herbivore) dinosaur, perhaps the most familiar of the dinosaurs. The scientific name has recently been changed to Apatosaurus, but Brontosaurus is still used popularly. The word is from the Greek, meaning “thunder lizard.”

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Word History

Take a little deception, add a little excitement, stir them with a century-long mistake, and you have the mystery of the brontosaurus. Specifically, you have the mystery of its name. For 100 years this 70-foot-long, 30-ton vegetarian giant had two names. This case of double identity began in 1877, when bones of a large dinosaur were discovered. The creature was dubbed apatosaurus, a name that meant “deceptive lizard” or “unreal lizard.” Two years later, bones of a larger dinosaur were found, and in all the excitement, scientists named it brontosaurus or “thunder lizard.” This name stuck until scientists decided it was all a mistake—the two sets of bones actually belonged to the same type of dinosaur. Since it is a rule in taxonomy that the first name given to a newly discovered organism is the one that must be used, scientists have had to use the term apatosaurus. But “thunder lizard” had found a lot of popular appeal, and many people still prefer to call the beast brontosaurus.

Etymology

Origin of brontosaurus

< New Latin (1879), equivalent to Greek bronto- (combining form of brontḗ thunder) + saûros -saurus

Compare meaning

How does brontosaurus compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:

• diplodocus vs. brontosaurus

Example Sentences

The 75-foot-long brontosaurus at the newly reopened Yale Peabody Museum in New Haven, Conn., is the same dinosaur that the natural history museum has had on display since 1931.

From New York Times

One lineage gave rise to all other animals on Earth, from brontosauruses to badgers.

From Science Magazine

Onstage in Lincoln Center Theater’s maximalist revival of “The Skin of Our Teeth” last spring were a giant brontosaurus puppet, a full-scale amusement park slide and a stage-spanning verdant field in full bloom.

From New York Times

“This one looks like a brontosaurus,” McCurdy gleefully observes as she plucks a stalk of fried asparagus from the bowl at the center of the table.

From Washington Post

This means that a wide range of iconic dinosaurs were warm-blooded: Velociraptors and tyrannosaurus rexes were theropods, pterodactyls and so-called "monkeydactyls" were pterosaurs, triceratopses and stegosauruses were ornithischia, and brontosauruses and brachiosauruses were sauropods.

From Salon