Re: Most popular/common dinosaur misconceptions

[Jamie Stearns <stearns5@cox.net>]

> CMIIW, but wasn't Brontosaurus based on a chimera? (i.e., Camarasaurus 
> skull
> + Apatosaurus spine et al)
The mistake involving the dinosaur's head was different from the mistake 
involving its name. As I recall, the differences that were used to separate 
the two genera, such as differing number of sacral vertebrae, turned out to 
be due to the fact that one of the animals was a juvenile. As for the head, 
Marsh originally restored "Brontosaurus" with cranial material that is now 
thought to have come from a Brachiosaurus, and later a Camarasaurus-like 
head was put on the skeleton. The correct Diplodocus-like head turned up 
some time (I think) around the 1920s, but it wasn't until the 1970s that the 
mistake was corrected.