If it is any consolation, the decommissioning of the genus "Brontosaurus" has freed the root up as a common name for the group of sauropods of the family Diplodocidae. So instead of the more formal usage as in "Apatosaurus is a robust diplodocid" you can instead say "Apatosaurus is a robust brontosaur". Everyone in the paleontology community will know what you are talking about and should not object. So this usage broadens the term and you can then say that "Diplodocus is a more gracile brontosaur". Some might even broaden the term further (at the expense of clarity) and use "brontosaur" as a synonym for the word "sauropod". Then everyone, even the common folk walking the streets will know what you are talking about. This would be true in English. I don't know about other languages.
