The Brontosaurus and the Diplodocus are some of the most iconic dinosaurs in the history of history. They seem to be an inseparable duo. But who was first? What is different about these two dinosaurs? And what do we know about their extinction? We’re going to dig deep into the lives of them both to find out!
The Brontosaurus was first
The Brontosaurus was first, but it went extinct before the Diplodocus. The name Brontosaurus means “thunder lizard” and was given to this animal in 1879 by Othniel C. Marsh. At the time, people had only found three partial skeletons of this animal but they were all in a similar state- complete with long necks and four elephantine feet. In 1903, the discovery of a skull led scientists to conclude that these animals belonged to a different family than the Diplodocus and they called them Brachiosaurus instead. This is what’s known as an invalid synonymy or scientific mistake.
If you ever do find a Brontosaurus skeleton, you might notice something quite different about its head shape. The skull has a much longer face than most dinosaurs and it has two small eye sockets that are lower on its head than the Diplodocus which has larger eye sockets near its nose.
Brontosaurus also had five fingers on one hand whereas the Diplodocus had only four fingers on each hand – which is why we still call it Brontosaurus! We know these differences because, in 1987, scientists found a new specimen that was nearly fully grown from Wyoming and made us realize just how different these two dinosaurs really were. So even though we’ve been calling it Brontosaurus for over 100 years, it turns out that we technically should have been calling it Brachiosaurus all along!
The Diplodocus
The Diplodocus was first discovered and described in 1878. It is a long, whip-like animal with around 170 centimeters of the neck and a total length of 26 meters. The largest ever found Diplodocus skull reached 1,804 millimeters.
Diplodocus had a long tail to balance its heavy body and long neck while it walked on four legs.
It has 76 pairs of ribs, which is more than any other type of dinosaur. This helped the Diplodocus keep its balance when it walked on four legs.
The Diplodocus lived in the Jurassic period about 155 million years ago.
Dinosaurs that lived at the same time as the Diplodocus were Apatosaurus, Brachiosaurus, Camarasaurus, Stegosaurus, Allosaurus, Ankylosaurus, and Spinosaurus.
Who was the first?
In 1879, a Yale professor named Othniel C. Marsh was completing his work on the fossils of a long-necked dinosaur. The fossil that he found was so unusual that he decided to name it after himself and called it Brontosaurus. But in 1903, another paleontologist by the name of Elmer Riggs found a similar fossil and found that it was actually an earlier discovery from Marsh’s rival, Edward Drinker Cope. This meant that the Brontosaurus wasn’t Marsh’s first discovery and that he had just wanted to erase his rival’s legacy.
What is different about these two dinosaurs?
The Diplodocus and the Brontosaurus are different in many ways. The first, most obvious difference is their name. The Brontosaurus is a now-defunct genus of dinosaurs that was originally named by Othniel Charles Marsh in 1879. In 1877, Marsh assigned the name Brachiosaurus to these dinosaurs because he thought they were similar enough to Brachiosaurus for them to be classified as one. However, the original specimen of this dinosaur turned out to be a Camarasaurus, so it was renamed accordingly.
Sometime later in 1879, Marsh decided to resurrect the name and assign it to a new type of dinosaur that he felt was closely related to his original Brontosaurus. This became known as a Diplodocus, which is still recognized today as a valid genus of dinosaurs.
Both of these dinosaurs have very short front legs that are positioned at an angle and long back legs. They had four claws on each hand and three toes on each foot. They both also had tiny nostrils placed at the end of their snout. Finally, they both walked upright on their hind legs with stiff tails that served as a counterweight for their spine when they walked or ran.
The main difference between these two types of dinosaurs is that Brontosaurus is extinct while Diplodocus lives on today.
What did we know about their extinction?
One of the most intriguing aspects of these two dinosaurs is their extinction. The Diplodocus lived during the Late Jurassic Period, which is 160 million years ago. The last fossil records for them were found in North America and Thailand. What about the Brontosaurus? It lived during the Late Jurassic period as well, but only lasted around 20 million years. It was found in North America, Africa, and Antarctica.
It’s interesting to note that there were still fossils left from the Diplodocus after it had gone extinct while there weren’t any left from the Brontosaurus when it went extinct. This could mean that they went extinct earlier than one another because they had enough time to reproduce before they died out completely. However, it’s also possible that this is a coincidence and that they both died out at roughly the same time–who knows!
It’s not always easy to tell whether something is a dinosaur or just a model of one. Take this picture for example: Is this an ancient statue or a model of a Diplodocus?
In most cases, you can tell if something’s real by looking at three key points: their jawline, their eyes, and their feet. For example, if we look closely at this Diplodocus statue, we can see its teeth are angled downwards which means it’s meant to represent a real animal–not just some fake toy!
Conclusion
Brontosaurus and Diplodocus are two dinosaurs that have been the subject of a lot of debate in recent years.
The debate is mostly about the classification of the two. Originally, it was believed that Brontosaurus was a separate genus from Diplodocus. However, new discoveries show that Brontosaurus is just a synonym for Diplodocus.
But it’s not just about the different names. There are a ton of other differences between these two dinosaurs as well. For example, Brontosaurus had a much longer neck, which is why it likely couldn’t swim as well.