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In 1989, the U.S. Postal Service released a collection of 25-cent commemorative postage stamps celebrating a series of dinosaurs. The stamps featured the tyrannosaurus, and the stegosaurus, and the pteranodon. They also featured, however, the brontosaurus, or the "thunder lizard" — which had been reclassified under the genus apatosaurus ("deceptive lizard") in 1903.
This was an egregious mistake, but an understandable one. The brontosaurus — the gentle giant that ate plants and sneezed on children — has spent the past century as, if not an actual species, then a cultural one. Tyrannosaurus, stegosaurus, triceratops...and brontosaurus. The sauropod was like the fourth Beatle, only more beloved. Sure, the long-necked giant might not have technically existed; in another sense, though, the brontosaurus was more real in the human imagination than the apatosaurus ever was. Read more...
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