THE DIPLODOCUS DINOSAUR By Catherine Ray INTRODUCTION The

THE DIPLODOCUS DINOSAUR By Catherine Ray

INTRODUCTION The Diplodocus is one of the best-known sauropod whose fossils were first discovered in 1877 by S. W. Williston.

HABITAT The Diplodocus lived in what is now western North America at the end of the Jurassic Period. Two men named Marsh and Hatcher assumed that the dinosaur was aquatic because of the position of it’s nasal openings at the apex of the cranium which is it’s skull.

DIET Diplodocus was a herbivore which ate plants. It’s main food was conifer. It would mostly eat leaves but if it was in a place which was full of plants, it would eat anything. As a secondary source of food it’s diet probably included gingkos and seed ferns.

APPEARANCE Diplodocus had a long neck, with a whip-tail which was huge but had a tiny brain. It was about 90 feet (27 m) long, with a 26 foot (8 m) long neck and a 45 (14 m) long tail but it’s head was less than 2 feet long. The nostrils were at the top of the head and it had peg-like teeth, but only towards the front of the jaws – there were no teeth in the back of the jaws. Diplodocus may have weighed only about 10 -20 tons.

INTERESTING FACTS Did you know that even though Tyrannosaurus Rex ate every other dinosaur it didn’t eat the Diplodocus because of it’s sheer size which means that the Diplodocus died of old age, diseases or other natural causes. Diplodocus means “double-beamed” as a reference to it’s long neck and long tail. Diplodocus was and still is the longest dinosaur that ever lived.

LABELLED DIAGRAM OF DIPLODOCUS