Fascinating Facts About the Diplodocus Dinosaur

Diplodocus, pronounced dip-Low-doh-cuss, was one of the largest dinosaurs ever discovered. It was the longest land animal, but not the heaviest. This extinct prehistoric creature was 90 feet (27 m) long and its height was 22 feet (7 m). Diplodocus weighed between 11 and 20 tons. Fossil remains have been found in the Western United States. It was a sauropod, a "lizard-hipped" dinosaur, that lived approximately 152 million years ago in the late Jurassic period.

Diplodocus means "double beam" and describes a feature of the backbone. Its hind legs were longer than the front legs giving it the ablility to reach both high and low growing plants. This creature would have moved slowly on all four of its legs.

This sauropod was the most famous dinosaur on the planet in the last century. At almost 100 feet in length, it is the longest complete dinosaur skeleton ever discovered. There is a famous life-size replica of the Diplodocus nicknamed "Dippy" in front of the Carnegie Museum of National History (Pittsburgh, PA, USA).

Diplodocus carnegii was named after industrialist and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie. The scientists who discovered this prehistoric dinosaur were working for Carnegie when they made the discovery. Amazed at the size of this extinct animal, Andrew Carnegie had copies of it made and sent to 11 museums in different parts of the world. This helped make millions of people aware of Diploducus, the giant monster from the late Jurassic time period

Diplodocus was a herbivore, it ate only plants; its main food was probably conifers. Diplodocus had a long neck, pillar like legs with a long tapering tail. This extinct creature had peg-like teeth in its elongated head. The head seemed very small for such a large animal. It is wondered how this small head could ingest enough food to fuel such a huge body. It must have eaten an enormous amount of plants each day. Some scientists say this prehistoric creature would have needed to eat every waking moment to supply enough food to keep the gigantic body alive. It didn't chew its food, it swallowed leaves whole. It swallowed stones (gastroliths), which it held in its stomach to help digest the tough plant material.

It is believed Diplodocus may have traveled in herds, migrating when the food supply ran out. Fossil eveidence points to the idea that Diplodocus laid its eggs as the dinosaur walked. This would also point to the theory that there was no parental care of the young hatchlings.

This sauropod had a very small brain and its intelligence was most likely among the lowest of all of the dinosaurs. Some paleontologists have theorized that Diploducus might have used its very long tail as a weapon. It could have been a deadly weapon because of the length of, and speed of the tail, which at its tip would have traveled faster than the speed of sound.

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