Editing 460: Paleontology

This comic is essentially a set up for a pun: "Underground" can mean "under the ground" (buried in the dirt) or "non-mainstream." In this case, [[Ponytail]] is whining that she had been doing paleontology before ''{{w|Jurassic Park}}'' kicked paleontology into the mainstream with living reproductions of dinosaurs, thus apparently undermining the hard work paleontologists had done. In other words, this comic is also poking fun at hipsters.

This comic is essentially a set up for a pun: "Underground" can mean "under the ground" (buried in the dirt) or "non-mainstream." In this case, [[Ponytail]] is whining that she had been doing paleontology before ''{{w|Jurassic Park}}'' kicked paleontology into the mainstream with living reproductions of dinosaurs, thus apparently undermining the hard work paleontologists had done. In other words, this comic is also poking fun at hipsters.

The title text refers to the controversy of calling the ''{{w|Brontosaurus}}'' by its newer, correct (at the time) {{w|Binomial nomenclature|generic name}} of ''{{w|Apatosaurus}}'', despite its previous name still being in mainstream use long after its {{w|Taxonomy (biology)|taxonomic}} redefinition in 1903. (As of 2015, ''Brontosaurus'' is once again the correct generic name, as it has been reclassified as a distinct {{w|Genus|genus}}.) The title text claims that this renaming has "jumped the ichthyosaur," which is a play on the idiom "{{w|jumping the shark}}" — i.e. that the subject of dinosaurs has reached a point of declining relevance, and ''Brontosaurus'' has been renamed as a publicity stunt to compensate. The "{{w|Shark|shark}}" in the idiom has been replaced by an "''{{w|Ichthyosaur}}''," which was a marine reptile that resembled a shark or dolphin and lived alongside dinosaurs during the {{w|Mesozoic}} era (although sharks also lived during that time). [[636: Brontosaurus]] also references the ''Brontosaurus'' name change. A ''Brontosaurus''  also appears in [[15: Just Alerting You]] and an ''Apatosaurus'' in [[650: Nowhere]].

The title text refers to the controversy of calling the ''{{w|Brontosaurus}}'' by its newer, correct (at the time) {{w|Binomial nomenclature|generic name}} of ''{{w|Apatosaurus}}'', despite its previous name still being in mainstream use long after its {{w|Taxonomy (biology)|taxonomic}} redefinition in 1903. (As of 2015, ''Brontosaurus'' is once again the correct generic name, as it has been reclassified as a distinct {{w|Genus|genus}}.) The title text claims that this renaming has "jumped the ichthyosaur," which is a play on the idiom "{{w|jumping the shark}}" — i.e. that the subject of dinosaurs has reached a point of declining relevance, and ''Brontosaurus'' has been renamed as a publicity stunt to compensate. The "{{w|Shark|shark}}" in the idiom has been replaced by an "''{{w|Ichthyosaur}}''," which was a marine reptile that resembled a shark or dolphin and lived alongside dinosaurs during the {{w|Mesozoic}} era (although sharks also lived during that time). [[636: Brontosaurus]] also references the ''Brontosaurus'' name change. A ''Brontosaurus''  also appears in [[15: Just Alerting You]] and an ''Apatosaurus'' in [[650: Nowhere]].