I’m reading a lot of dinosaur books with my nephew and we can’t tell the difference between an apatosaurus, brachiosaurus, brontosaurus, and diplodocus. And which type is Littlefoot in The Land Before Time?
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For many years Brontosaurus was considered a junior synonym for Apatosaurus (i.e. they’re the same animal, but the name Apatosaurus came first so it has priority). However in the last ten years or so Brontosaurus has been considered a separate genus, although one closely related to Apatosaurus.
Regardless, Diplodocus, Apatosaurus, and Brontosaurus (if it is valid) are all fairly closely related and belong to a group called the “diplodocids.” The brachiosaurids (which, as you might expect, contains Brachiosaurus) were another group. To put it in five-year-old terms, diplodocids were very long but brachiosaurids were very tall. Brachiosaurids had front legs longer than their rear legs, giving their bodies and necks an upward tilt. Diplodocids on the other hand held their bodies more horizontally, although how high they habitually held their necks is a matter of ongoing debate. Diplodocids also had long, whiplike tails.
Some other notable groups of sauropods include the titanosaurs, which were closely related to brachiosaurids and encompass the largest known land animals of all time, and the dicreosaurids, which were related to diplodocids but generally smaller and often had long spines on their necks.
That’s broad strokes, if you really wanted to tell them apart down to the genus and species level you’d have to take detailed looks at their bones, and especially their teeth.
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