"But the name Brontosaurus is still known by several generations of schoolchildren. It's not entirely clear why the name stuck, but it may be to do with its origins in the Bone Wars, when there was intense public interest in the discovery of new dinosaurs."
I'm glad they addressed this in the article. I read the headline and was like "Whaaaaat?" I did not know the name "Brontosaurus" was not valid! I was born in the late '70s but still, that's half a century after this happened.
Dinosaur books for children in libraries across the country (public or school) are frequently quite old, or at least out of date.
Not terribly surprising when you consider it is a topic that sits on the very edge of human knowledge, but so often attracts the interests of children. Same problem exists for space books. When I was a kid I had a few space books that referred to men "one day" landing on the moon. This was 20 years after that had actually happened.
In 1965, there was a giant Dinoland exhibit at the NY World's Fair. The Brontosaurus was a "big" (heh, heh) feature.[1] That was viewed by millions of visitors from all around the world. So, even if scientists decided in 1903 to deprecate it, obviously not everyone agreed.
IIRC you got to watch the moulding machine at the fair make it for you once you put your $0.50 into it.
Edit: forgot to add, in the 1960s in primetime, and in syndication for much longer, Fred Flintstone operated a "bronto-crane". I'm sure that had a lot to do with keeping Brontosaurus active in kid's imaginations.
I recommend the book "Bully For Brontosaurus" by Stephen Jay Gould.
It is a fun book from the early 90s or so, I got it as a random present, and enjoy reading it.
It talks a bit about popularisation of science and what it means. Has some interesting stories from history of biology, evolution. One relevant set of articles is on Dinomania -- the sudden and unexpected popularity of dinosaurs, specifically with a short story called "Bully For Brontosaurus" (same title as the book). The story kind of disects how Brontosaurus was a fought over label, and of course the Appatosaurus advocates won. The story ends with "I retreat not with a bang of thunder, but with a whimper of hope that rectification may someday arise from the ashes of my stamp album".
If Steven were alive, he would have been happy to know that indeed rectification did happen!
Funny you ask. I saw it once, in the theater when it came out. But that happened to be my first date, and I spent the entire movie awkwardly making out with her. 20+ years later and I still haven't actually watched that movie.
I'm glad they addressed this in the article. I read the headline and was like "Whaaaaat?" I did not know the name "Brontosaurus" was not valid! I was born in the late '70s but still, that's half a century after this happened.