The not-quite-a-Brontosaurus

Marsh and Cope’s race to publish led to a historic case of mistaken identity

Wrong head

One of Marsh’s most notable finds was the igantic Apatosaurus. Here, however, Marsh had placed the head of a Brachiosaurus on an Apatosaurus skeleton and named it Brontosaurus, a mistake Cope revelled in publicising.

Too many toes

This specimen had splayed toes with too many claws, perhaps a result of the widespread belief dinosaurs were more related to modern-day reptiles than they’ve turned out to be.

Modern revision

Although this Brontosaurus was debunked, the name resurfaced in 2015 to reclassify the Apatosaurus excelsus as Brontosaurus excelsus, due to it being substantially different enough to other Apatosauri to justify its own genus.

Heavy hips

Another relic of the reptile connection (‘dinosaur’ is Greek for ‘terrible lizard’) is the size and placement of the hip bones resembling lizards rather than birds. Cope theorised that birds were descendants of dinosaurs — a theory that’s been upheld.

Caudal for concern

Another of Marsh’s errors was the low number of anterior caudals, as the presumption their bones were heavy (and not partly hollow like birds’) led him to believe it wouldn’t support a longer tail.