--- title: Brontosaurus is a Genus of Dinosaur, Palentology Study Finds description: A new study in the shows that the scientific community got it wrong—the Brontosaurus was in fact its own genus of dinosaur. canonical: https://time.com/3773770/brontosaurus-dinosaur/ author: Justin Worland article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-04-07T15:37:52.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T05:45:21.325Z article:section: Science og:title: The Brontosaurus Is a Dinosaur Once Again og:description: A new study finds the sauropod should get its original name back og:url: https://time.com/3773770/brontosaurus-dinosaur/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4eb418484a19f6bf/69878705cd6848c70709a868/brontosaurus.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1836 og:image:height: 1033 og:image:alt: Brontosaurus og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The Brontosaurus Is a Dinosaur Once Again twitter:description: A new study finds the sauropod should get its original name back twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4eb418484a19f6bf/69878705cd6848c70709a868/brontosaurus.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # The Brontosaurus Comes Back from the Dead > Sponsored content. 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Future Proof is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Justin Worland](https://time.com/author/justin-worland/)  ## Justin Worland Senior Correspondent Apr 7, 2015 3:37 PM UTC  Apatosaurus in natural environment, illustration Apatosaurus in natural environment, illustration Getty Images  by [Justin Worland](https://time.com/author/justin-worland/)  ## Justin Worland Senior Correspondent Apr 7, 2015 3:37 PM UTC It’s been more than a century since paleontologists began arguing that the _Brontosaurus_ didn’t exist as a separate category of dinosaur. Now, the thunder lizard is making a comeback. The 75-foot-long sauropod was named a brontosaurus (“noble thunder lizard”) by paleontologist Othniel Charles Marsh, [LiveScience reports](http://news.yahoo.com/extinct-no-longer-brontosaurus-may-comeback-115118481.html), who discovered its remains in 1879\. But another dinosaur expert, Elmer Riggs, determined in 1903 that the animal was not its own species and in fact a type of _Apatosaurus_ (“deceptive lizard”). The brontosaurus name was officially retired from dinosaur taxonomy. Now, a new [study](https://peerj.com/articles/857/) in the journal PeerJ shows that the Brontosaurus was in fact its own genus of dinosaur. The discovery of fresh dinosaur remains in the last 15 years made the revaluation possible. Researchers from Portugal and the United Kingdom used statistical analysis methods on the new remains to compare hundreds of structural characteristics of the _Brontosaurus_ and _Apatosaurus_. The differences were substantial enough to give each one a separate genus. “It’s the classic example of how science works,” said researcher Octávio Mateus, a professor at Universidade Nova de Lisboa in Portugal. “Especially when hypotheses are based on fragmentary fossils, it is possible for new finds to overthrow years of research.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3773770/brontosaurus-dinosaur/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3773770/brontosaurus-dinosaur/"},"headline":"The Brontosaurus Comes Back from the Dead","datePublished":"2015-04-07T15:37:52.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T05:45:21.325Z","description":"A new study finds the \"thunder lizard\" was its own type of dinosaur after all","url":"https://time.com/3773770/brontosaurus-dinosaur/","keywords":["Paleontology"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4eb418484a19f6bf/69878705cd6848c70709a868/brontosaurus.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Justin Worland","jobTitle":"Senior Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/justin-worland/"}],"articleSection":"Science","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4eb418484a19f6bf/69878705cd6848c70709a868/brontosaurus.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Brontosaurus","caption":"Brontosaurus","creditText":"Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/science/","name":"Science"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/paleontology/","name":"Paleontology"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3773770/brontosaurus-dinosaur/","name":"The Brontosaurus Comes Back from the Dead"}}]}] ```