Welcome to episode four of our popular A-Zed series; Dinosaurs. Today we have reached the letter Dee, which of course means everybodies favourite long necked dinosaur that isn't the Apatosaurus; The Diplodocus. Our mate Dipo has that "classic dinosaur shape" with a big long neck and an equally huge tail, all held off the ground by four big sturdy legs. Diplodocus is long, in fact its the longest dinosaur that we have a complete skeleton of. It is estimated that Dipo was upto 33 metres long and weighed in at around 10 to 16 tonne. Jenny Craig would be proud.
The Diplodocus was discovered by S. W. Wilson in 1877, however he wasn't named until O. C. Marsh came along in 1878. Regular readers will know O. C. is short for Othniel Charles as Mr Marsh is a bit of a feature in this blog. From North America, complete skeletons are often found without their skulls, leading to a well respected theory made up just then by me that a headless sub species of Diplodocus existed in Wyoming and Colorado.
Dipo lived during the Jurassic period, so only about 150 million years ago. Hopefully I don't have to tell you that the Diplodocus was vegetarian, but just in case - the Diplodocus was vegetarian. They may have lived for around 100 years and probably travelled in herds. Its tail was "whip-like" and may have been used as a weapon. Either that, or for dominatrix games in the bedroom.
Unfortunately, no human ever saw a Diplodocus alive and so we can only summise what their habits were like. Academics guesstimate that they had nests for their eggs and were cathemeral - active in short bursts during the day. One study has even proposed that, due to their long necks, Dipo might have had a second smaller heart to pump blood to its head. But we all know that is wrong, as they didn't actually have heads.
