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It's a synonym for the genus Apatosaurus. There are rules for the naming of all organisms and they boil down to a first-come-first-served proviso. The fossils of this particular animal, when first found, were incomplete, but enough was available to establish the existence of a new dinosaur, and it was named Apatosaurus ajax. A few years later a much more complete fossil skeleton was found and, not realizing it was similar to the earlier find was named Brontosaurus excelsus. It was later decided that both animals were quite similar, and probably belonged to the same genus. Since the name Apatosaurus was published first, Brontosaurus was dropped and is, by convention, no longer used.

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10y ago

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