Papo Dinosaurs Apatosaurus 55039

Apatosaurus was discovered in 1877 and was given its name that year by Othniel Charles Marsh, which means something like "deceitful saurian". The first named type species is Apatosaurus ajax. In 1879 Marsh named a very similar species as Brontosaurus excelsus. This second genus, Brontosaurus ("thunder lizard"), would become a much more famous name than Apatosaurus. Marsh, and others after him, named a total of nine more species of both genera. Today, most of them are believed not to be separate species or to be completely different dinosaurs. Brontosaurus excelsus is seen as a separate species, but because of the great similarity, since 1979 it has usually been classified in the genus Apatosaurus as Apatosaurus excelsus. The name best known to the general public was then dropped. In 2015, however, an authoritative study concluded that it was better to distinguish a separate genus Brontosaurus for this species. A third true species is Apatosaurus louisae. Thousands of Apatosaurus fossils have been found, including a dozen more or less complete skeletons. This gave science a good idea of what the animal looked like.