Editing 636: Brontosaurus
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| titletext = Well, sex is like a velociraptor: despite your movie-fueled lifelong neurotic obsession, unlikely to be found in your house. | | titletext = Well, sex is like a velociraptor: despite your movie-fueled lifelong neurotic obsession, unlikely to be found in your house. | ||
}} | }} | ||
| β | + | [[File:Louisae.jpg|thumb|right|upright=1.5|alt=Remains of an {{w|Apatosaurus}}.]] | |
==Explanation== | ==Explanation== | ||
[[Megan]] describes her relationship to [[Cueball]] with the simile "our love is like a turtle," a comparison often made when referring to a shy and slowly developing yet steady sort of romance. However, Cueball thinks that the ''{{w|Brontosaurus}}'' is a better comparison. His explanation refers to the fact that remains of a certain [[wikipedia:Apatosaurinae|apatosaurine]] were initially named ''{{w|Brontosaurus excelsus}}'' by the paleontologist {{w|Othniel Charles Marsh|O.C. Marsh}} in 1879. This species was later determined in 1903 to be in the same {{w|genus}} as ''{{w|Apatosaurus ajax}}'', which Marsh had named two years before ''B. excelsus'': the older genus name is preferred according to convention (making the preferred binomial ''Apatosaurus excelsus''). The term ''Brontosaurus'' therefore became a scientific redundancy (a so-called junior synonym), and had this status at the time of this comic's release. Due to the correct skull for an apatosaurine not being confirmed [http://static.peerj.com/press/previews/2015/04/857_infographic_no_text.pdf until 1978], the term "brontosaurus" had in the meantime become popularly associated with an apatosaurine depicted with a speculative ''{{w|Camarasaurus}}''-like head, hence the "mistaken combination" mentioned in the comic. | [[Megan]] describes her relationship to [[Cueball]] with the simile "our love is like a turtle," a comparison often made when referring to a shy and slowly developing yet steady sort of romance. However, Cueball thinks that the ''{{w|Brontosaurus}}'' is a better comparison. His explanation refers to the fact that remains of a certain [[wikipedia:Apatosaurinae|apatosaurine]] were initially named ''{{w|Brontosaurus excelsus}}'' by the paleontologist {{w|Othniel Charles Marsh|O.C. Marsh}} in 1879. This species was later determined in 1903 to be in the same {{w|genus}} as ''{{w|Apatosaurus ajax}}'', which Marsh had named two years before ''B. excelsus'': the older genus name is preferred according to convention (making the preferred binomial ''Apatosaurus excelsus''). The term ''Brontosaurus'' therefore became a scientific redundancy (a so-called junior synonym), and had this status at the time of this comic's release. Due to the correct skull for an apatosaurine not being confirmed [http://static.peerj.com/press/previews/2015/04/857_infographic_no_text.pdf until 1978], the term "brontosaurus" had in the meantime become popularly associated with an apatosaurine depicted with a speculative ''{{w|Camarasaurus}}''-like head, hence the "mistaken combination" mentioned in the comic. | ||
