Talk:Apatosaurus

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Creature name[[edit source]]

Brontosaurus is the alternate name for Apatosaurus, and if I remember my history correctly Apatosaurus was discovered first and that when the supposed "Brontosaurus" was found and named some time later, the scientists didn't realise it was the same animal as Apatosaurus until much later. With this in mind, the first name given to the creature was Apatosaurus and is so the official name. Shouldn't the article name be changed to Apatosaurus instead then? The evil dude. 10:36, December 30, 2009 (UTC)

Agreed. The Third Doctor even notes it has two names. --Nyktimos 04:03, February 15, 2010 (UTC)

T:NO RW[[edit source]]

Do we have an IU source for the above, since we're using it on the page? Not just that it has two names, but that one name is more "correct" than the other. Najawin 07:10, 1 April 2023 (UTC)

Hmm… I don't know if we have it in so many words, but in The Doctor Who Dinosaur Book, where Dr Who is deliberately trying to be educational, he uses "Apatosaurus" exclusively, so I think we can probably infer that it's the more formal name of the two cited by Pertwee? Might not be enough to justify "incorrectly" for Brontosaurus in the lead, but I do think it's enough to justify keeping the name at this page and saying Brontosaurus is a more casual term. Scrooge MacDuck 11:29, 1 April 2023 (UTC)
This is surely very similar to the whole hatbox/hat box fiasco? In my eyes, if the same real world thing is mentioned in the DWU, albeit under different names, they should be merged as they are the same concept and it literally doesn't serve any readers to have dozens of pages split because of the Wiki being pedantic. 12:05, 1 April 2023 (UTC)
Not similar at all, imo. I'm not disputing the merge, apparently there's a source that uses both. The page says one is more "correct" than the other, that's the issue. Najawin 20:05, 1 April 2023 (UTC)
Oh okay then, my mistake. 20:08, 1 April 2023 (UTC)