history
The Chinese name is a calque of the Greek 'Apatosaurus' — 'deceptive lizard.' For most of the 20th century these fossils were labelled Brontosaurus ('thunder lizard'), but in 1903 the genus was ruled a junior synonym of Apatosaurus. A 2015 study re-separated Brontosaurus as its own genus, so both names are now valid for different species.
