On 6/16/06, Andreas Johansson <andreasj@gmail.com> wrote:
> I've heard alot of different versions of a story about a "brontosaur"
> skeleton that was mistakenly mounted with the head attached to the
> tail instead of the neck. Does anyone know if there's some true
> incident behind this, or whether it's just an urban legend.
Plesiosaur (specifically _Elasmosaurus_), not "brontosaur". The
mistake was made by none other than Edward Drinker Cope, and Othniel
Charles Marsh pointing it out and publicizing it is supposedly what
led do their feud.
Marsh was the one who mistakenly mounted a _Camarasaurus_ head on a
_Brontosaurus_ (=_Apatosaurus_) skeleton--probably the source of the
confusion.