Brontosaurus

The mythical creature of the day (or whatever period of time) is the Brontosaurus.

Pictured here, in its original habitat.

At this moment, you are probably thinking "Brontosaurus? Mythical creature? No way. It's a dinosaur. It found the T. rex. Right?"

To think such a thing, is in fact, incorrect. There is no such thing as a brontosaurus. Let me explain.

Once upon a time, there were these two palaeontologists. They were Edward Drinker Cope and Othniel Charles Marsh. They were rivals, and partook in the whole big shenanigan known as The Bone Wars, or, The Great Dinosaur Rush. This took place in the 19th century, when palaeontology was becoming a thing, and people were starting to question god and religion. Cope and Marsh hated each other, and both of them wanted to be the best palaeontologist ever, with the most dinosaur discoveries to his name. Now, both did find quite a few, and are responsible for many of the prehistoric discoveries we have today. However, both made their mistakes.

Edward Drinker Cope. Shown here, pre-syphilis, with one heck of a skull. 

Edward Drinker Cope, also known as E.D. Cope, or one of the more interesting people to enter the field of palaeontology, was born in 1840, and was responsible for many interesting finds. Along with being a palaeontologist, he was also a ghost hunter, and is believed to have died of syphilis (Note: DO NOT GET SYPHILIS. Want to experience horror? Look up syphilis). His only big mistake during the bone wars was putting the skull on the wrong side of a type of elasmosaurus. An elasmosaur is a type of long-neck plesiosaur, a t marine reptile who would have lived in North America about 75+ million years ago, when a great portion of the continent was an inland sea. The elasmosaur is supposed to have a long neck with with a short tail, but Cope messed that up and put the head on the side with the tail, making it a short neck with a long tail. Eventually, his mistake came to light. A decently sized mistake, but not as big as Marsh's fault.

Othniel Charles Marsh. Pictured here looking like a  far less jolly  version of Santa Claus.

Othniel Charles Marsh, from this point forth referred to only as "Marsh" was born in 1831, and in many ways, is far less interesting in comparison to someone like E.D. Cope. He did find more species of dinosaurs than Cope, but he was responsible for the dinosaur known as the Brontosaurus.

The Brontosaurus is actually the combination of an Apatosaurus and another dinosaur. Thus... not a real thing. Any more.

So, now when someone calls this guy:

The proud Apatosaurus

Or this guy:

The delightful and likely polite Brachiosaurus

Or any of the long-neck dinosaurs (or sauropods), or that matter, a Brontosaurus, you can say "No, it is not a thunder lizard. It is a different type of dinosaur that looks slightly similar but is in fact, actually real."

Also, a sauropod and a T.rex would not engage in battle. Sauropods like Apatosaurus, Brachiosaurus, and so on, are Jurassic creatures. A Tyrannosaurus rex, on the other hand, is a Cretaceous creature.

And yes. Most of what Jurassic Park told you is a lie.