( CNN ) Everybody loves a good comeback story -- especially one that 's dino-sized . After its name was booted from science books for more than a century , a new study suggests that the Brontosaurus belongs to its own genera , and therefore deserves its own name . O.C . Marsh first named the Brontosaurus in 1879 , after he received 25 crates of bones discovered at Como Bluff , Wyoming , according to the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History . Similar to , though not as large as the Apatosaurus discovered a couple of years prior , Marsh named the dinosaur , `` Brontosaurus , '' or `` thunder lizard . '' Apatosaurus had three sacral vertebrae in its hip region and Brontosaurus had five , according to the museum 's website , so Marsh gave the dinosaurs two different names . Later it was discovered that the number of sacral vertebrae is related to age : as the animal gets older , two of the vertebrae fuse to the sacrum . Paleontologist Elmer Riggs concluded in 1903 that the Brontosaurus was really a young Apatosaurus , and therefore must go by that name , according to the museum . Emanuel Tschopp , a paleontologist at the Nova University of Lisbon , Portugal , led this latest study , which took five years and included visits to 20 museums in Europe and the United States to collect data . By examining `` 500 anatomical traits , '' Tschopp said he was able to `` reconstruct the family tree '' of Diplodocids -- the family Apatosaurus and Brontosaurus belong to . Tschopp `` looked at every single specimen , '' according to Jacques Gauthier , curator of vertebrate paleontology at Yale Peabody Museum and `` noted their characteristics , '' plugging data into an algorithm that revealed `` five species in the group of Diplodocids . '' Two of them are Brontosaurus-like and three are Apatosaurus-like , Gauthier said . While his findings have earned the excitement of Brontosaurus fans everywhere , Tschopp said he is `` expecting a debate about the case of Brontosaurus . '' `` We think we have good evidence , '' he said , `` But I know there are other research groups that do not completely agree . '' For Gauthier , Tschopp 's discovery means changes are coming to the original Brontosaurus skeleton that has lived at the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History since 1936 . `` We 're definitely going to have to change the label , '' he said .
Scientist : Fossils once renamed may again be classified as endangered . This lasted five years and involved visits to 20 museums worldwide .