''Diplodocus'' (,
,
or
) was a
genus
Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nom ...
of
diplodocid
Diplodocids, or members of the family Diplodocidae ("double beams"), are a group of sauropod dinosaurs. The family includes some of the longest creatures ever to walk the Earth, including ''Diplodocus'' and ''Supersaurus'', some of which may hav ...
sauropod
Sauropoda (), whose members are known as sauropods (; from '' sauro-'' + '' -pod'', ' lizard-footed'), is a clade of saurischian ('lizard-hipped') dinosaurs. Sauropods had very long necks, long tails, small heads (relative to the rest of their ...
dinosaur
Dinosaurs are a diverse group of reptiles of the clade Dinosauria. They first appeared during the Triassic period, between 243 and 233.23 million years ago (mya), although the exact origin and timing of the evolution of dinosaurs is t ...
s, whose
fossil
A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ...
s were first discovered in 1877 by
S. W. Williston. The generic name, coined by
Othniel Charles Marsh
Othniel Charles Marsh (October 29, 1831 – March 18, 1899) was an American professor of Paleontology in Yale College and President of the National Academy of Sciences. He was one of the preeminent scientists in the field of paleontology. Among ...
in 1878, is a
neo-Latin
New Latin (also called Neo-Latin or Modern Latin) is the revival of Literary Latin used in original, scholarly, and scientific works since about 1500. Modern scholarly and technical nomenclature, such as in zoological and botanical taxonomy ...
term derived from
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
διπλός (''diplos'') "double" and δοκός (''dokos'') "beam",
in reference to the double-beamed
chevron bones located in the underside of the tail, which were then considered unique.
The genus of dinosaurs lived in what is now mid-western North America, at the end of the
Jurassic
The Jurassic ( ) is a geologic period and stratigraphic system that spanned from the end of the Triassic Period million years ago (Mya) to the beginning of the Cretaceous Period, approximately Mya. The Jurassic constitutes the middle period of ...
period
Period may refer to:
Common uses
* Era, a length or span of time
* Full stop (or period), a punctuation mark
Arts, entertainment, and media
* Period (music), a concept in musical composition
* Periodic sentence (or rhetorical period), a concept ...
. It is one of the more common dinosaur fossils found in the middle to upper
Morrison Formation
The Morrison Formation is a distinctive sequence of Upper Jurassic sedimentary rock found in the western United States which has been the most fertile source of dinosaur fossils in North America. It is composed of mudstone, sandstone, siltston ...
, between about 154 and 152 million years ago, during the late
Kimmeridgian Age.
The Morrison Formation records an environment and time dominated by gigantic sauropod dinosaurs, such as ''
Apatosaurus
''Apatosaurus'' (; meaning "deceptive lizard") is a genus of herbivorous sauropod dinosaur that lived in North America during the Late Jurassic period. Othniel Charles Marsh described and named the first-known species, ''A. ajax'', in 1 ...
'', ''
Barosaurus
''Barosaurus'' ( ) was a giant, long-tailed, long-necked, plant-eating sauropod dinosaur closely related to the more familiar ''Diplodocus''. Remains have been found in the Morrison Formation from the Upper Jurassic Period of Utah and South Da ...
'', ''
Brachiosaurus
''Brachiosaurus'' () is a genus of sauropod dinosaur that lived in North America during the Late Jurassic, about 154to 150million years ago. It was first Species description, described by American paleontologist Elmer S. Riggs in 1903 in pal ...
'', ''
Brontosaurus
''Brontosaurus'' (; meaning "thunder lizard" from Greek , "thunder" and , "lizard") is a genus of gigantic quadruped sauropod dinosaurs. Although the type species, ''B. excelsus'', had long been considered a species of the closely related ...
'', and ''
Camarasaurus
''Camarasaurus'' ( ) was a genus of quadrupedal, herbivorous dinosaurs and is the most common North American sauropod fossil. Its fossil remains have been found in the Morrison Formation, dating to the Late Jurassic epoch ( Kimmeridgian to ...
''.
Its great size may have been a deterrent to the predators ''
Allosaurus
''Allosaurus'' () is a genus of large carnosaurian theropod dinosaur that lived 155 to 145 million years ago during the Late Jurassic epoch ( Kimmeridgian to late Tithonian). The name "''Allosaurus''" means "different lizard" alludin ...
'' and ''
Ceratosaurus
''Ceratosaurus'' (from Greek κέρας/κέρατος, ' meaning "horn" and σαῦρος ' meaning "lizard") was a carnivorous theropod dinosaur in the Late Jurassic period ( Kimmeridgian to Tithonian). The genus was first described in 1 ...
'': their remains have been found in the same
strata
In geology and related fields, a stratum ( : strata) is a layer of rock or sediment characterized by certain lithologic properties or attributes that distinguish it from adjacent layers from which it is separated by visible surfaces known as e ...
, which suggests that they coexisted with ''Diplodocus''.
''Diplodocus'' is among the most easily identifiable dinosaurs, with its typical sauropod shape, long neck and tail, and four sturdy legs. For many years, it was the longest dinosaur known.
Description
![Diplodocus species size comparison](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c3/Diplodocus_species_size_comparison.svg)
Among the best-known sauropods, ''Diplodocus'' were very large, long-necked,
quadruped
Quadrupedalism is a form of locomotion where four limbs are used to bear weight and move around. An animal or machine that usually maintains a four-legged posture and moves using all four limbs is said to be a quadruped (from Latin ''quattuor' ...
al animals, with long, whip-like tails. Their forelimbs were slightly shorter than their hind limbs, resulting in a largely horizontal posture. The skeletal structure of these long-necked, long-tailed animals supported by four sturdy legs have been compared with suspension bridges.
In fact, ''D. carnegii'' is currently one of the longest dinosaurs known from a complete skeleton,
with a total length of .
Modern mass estimates for ''D. carnegii'' have tended to be in the range.
[Foster, J.R. (2003). Paleoecological Analysis of the Vertebrate Fauna of the Morrison Formation (Upper Jurassic), Rocky Mountain Region, U.S.A. New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science:Albuquerque, New Mexico. Bulletin 23.][
''D. hallorum'', known from partial remains, was even larger, and is estimated to have been the size of four ]elephant
Elephants are the largest existing land animals. Three living species are currently recognised: the African bush elephant, the African forest elephant, and the Asian elephant. They are the only surviving members of the family Elephantida ...
s. When first described in 1991, discoverer David Gillette calculated it may have been up to 52 m (171 ft) long,[Gillette, D.D., 1994, ''Seismosaurus: The Earth Shaker''. New York, Columbia University Press, 205 pp] making it the longest known dinosaur (excluding those known from exceedingly poor remains, such as ''Amphicoelias
''Amphicoelias'' (, meaning "biconcave", from the Greek ἀμφί, ''amphi'': "on both sides", and κοῖλος, ''koilos'': "hollow, concave") is a genus of herbivorous sauropod dinosaur that lived approximately 150 million years ago during ...
'' or ''Maraapunisaurus
''Maraapunisaurus'' is a genus of sauropod dinosaur from the Late Jurassic Morrison Formation of western North America. It is known only from what has sometimes been estimated to be the largest dinosaur specimen ever discovered, originally name ...
''). Some weight estimates of the time ranged as high as . The estimated length was later revised downward to and later on to [Carpenter, K. (2006). "Biggest of the big: a critical re-evaluation of the mega-sauropod ''Amphicoelias fragillimus''." In Foster, J.R. and Lucas, S.G., eds., 2006, ''Paleontology and Geology of the Upper Jurassic Morrison Formation.'' New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science Bulletin 36: 131–138.][ based on findings that show that Gillette had originally misplaced vertebrae 12–19 as vertebrae 20–27; according to Gregory S. Paul, a long ''D. hallorum'' weighs in body mass.][ The nearly complete ''D. carnegii'' skeleton at the ]Carnegie Museum of Natural History
The Carnegie Museum of Natural History (abbreviated as CMNH) is a natural history museum in the Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It was founded by Pittsburgh-based industrialist Andrew Carnegie in 1896.
Housing some 22 million ...
in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...
, on which size estimates of ''D. hallorum'' are mainly based, also was found to have had its 13th tail vertebra come from another dinosaur, throwing off size estimates for ''D. hallorum'' even further. While dinosaurs such as ''Supersaurus
''Supersaurus'' (meaning "super lizard") is a genus of diplodocid sauropod dinosaur that lived in North America during the Late Jurassic period. The type species, ''S. vivianae'', was first discovered by Vivian Jones of Delta, Colorado, in ...
'' were probably longer, fossil remains of these animals are only fragmentary.
''Diplodocus'' had an extremely long tail, composed of about 80 caudal vertebrae
The spinal column, a defining synapomorphy shared by nearly all vertebrates,Hagfish are believed to have secondarily lost their spinal column is a moderately flexible series of vertebrae (singular vertebra), each constituting a characteristic ...
, which are almost double the number some of the earlier sauropods had in their tails (such as ''Shunosaurus
''Shunosaurus'', meaning "shu lizard", is a genus of sauropod dinosaur from Late Jurassic ( Oxfordian) beds in Sichuan Province in China, approximately 159±2 million years ago. The name derives from "Shu", an ancient name for the Sichuan p ...
'' with 43), and far more than contemporaneous macronaria
Macronaria is a clade of sauropod dinosaurs. Macronarians are named after the large diameter of the nasal opening of their skull, known as the external naris, which exceeded the size of the orbit, the skull opening where the eye is located (hence ...
ns had (such as ''Camarasaurus
''Camarasaurus'' ( ) was a genus of quadrupedal, herbivorous dinosaurs and is the most common North American sauropod fossil. Its fossil remains have been found in the Morrison Formation, dating to the Late Jurassic epoch ( Kimmeridgian to ...
'' with 53). Some speculation exists as to whether it may have had a defensive or noisemaking (by cracking it like a coachwhip) or, as more recently suggested, tactile function. The tail may have served as a counterbalance for the neck. The middle part of the tail had "double beams" (oddly shaped chevron bones on the underside, which gave ''Diplodocus'' its name). They may have provided support for the vertebrae, or perhaps prevented the blood vessels from being crushed if the animal's heavy tail pressed against the ground. These "double beams" are also seen in some related dinosaurs. Chevron bones of this particular form were initially believed to be unique to ''Diplodocus''; since then they have been discovered in other members of the diplodocid
Diplodocids, or members of the family Diplodocidae ("double beams"), are a group of sauropod dinosaurs. The family includes some of the longest creatures ever to walk the Earth, including ''Diplodocus'' and ''Supersaurus'', some of which may hav ...
family as well as in non-diplodocid sauropods, such as ''Mamenchisaurus
''Mamenchisaurus'' (or spelling pronunciation ) is a genus of sauropod dinosaur known for their remarkably long necks which made up nearly half the total body length. Numerous species have been assigned to the genus; however, many of these might ...
''.
Like other sauropods, the manus (front "feet") of ''Diplodocus'' were highly modified, with the finger and hand bones arranged into a vertical column, horseshoe-shaped
Many shapes have metaphorical names, i.e., their names are metaphors: these shapes are named after a most common object that has it. For example, "U-shape" is a shape that resembles the letter U, a bell-shaped curve has the shape of the vertical ...
in cross section. ''Diplodocus'' lacked claws on all but one digit of the front limb, and this claw was unusually large relative to other sauropods, flattened from side to side, and detached from the bones of the hand. The function of this unusually specialized claw is unknown.
No skull has ever been found that can be confidently said to belong to ''Diplodocus'', though skulls of other diplodocids closely related to ''Diplodocus'' (such as '' Galeamopus'') are well known. The skulls of diplodocids were very small compared with the size
Size in general is the magnitude or dimensions of a thing. More specifically, ''geometrical size'' (or ''spatial size'') can refer to linear dimensions ( length, width, height, diameter, perimeter), area, or volume. Size can also be me ...
of these animals. ''Diplodocus'' had small, 'peg'-like teeth that pointed forward and were only present in the anterior
Standard anatomical terms of location are used to unambiguously describe the anatomy of animals, including humans. The terms, typically derived from Latin or Greek language, Greek roots, describe something in its standard anatomical position. Th ...
sections of the jaws. Its braincase was small. The neck was composed of at least 15 vertebra
The spinal column, a defining synapomorphy shared by nearly all vertebrates, Hagfish are believed to have secondarily lost their spinal column is a moderately flexible series of vertebrae (singular vertebra), each constituting a characteristi ...
e and may have been held parallel to the ground and unable to be elevated much past horizontal.
Skin
The discovery of partial diplodocid skin impressions in 1990 showed that some species had narrow, pointed, keratin
Keratin () is one of a family of structural fibrous proteins also known as ''scleroproteins''. Alpha-keratin (α-keratin) is a type of keratin found in vertebrates. It is the key structural material making up Scale (anatomy), scales, hair, Nail ...
ous spines, much like those on an iguana. The spines could be up to long, on the "whiplash" portion of their tails, and possibly along the back and neck as well, similarly to hadrosaurids
Hadrosaurids (), or duck-billed dinosaurs, are members of the ornithischian family Hadrosauridae. This group is known as the duck-billed dinosaurs for the flat duck-bill appearance of the bones in their snouts. The ornithopod family, which includ ...
.[Czerkas, S. A. (1994). "The history and interpretation of sauropod skin impressions." In ''Aspects of Sauropod Paleobiology'' (M. G. Lockley, V. F. dos Santos, C. A. Meyer, and A. P. Hunt, Eds.), ''Gaia'' No. 10. (Lisbon, Portugal).] The spines have been incorporated into many recent reconstructions of ''Diplodocus'', notably ''Walking with Dinosaurs
''Walking with Dinosaurs'' is a 1999 six-part nature documentary television miniseries created by Tim Haines and produced by the BBC Science Unit the Discovery Channel and BBC Worldwide, in association with TV Asahi, ProSieben and France 3. Envi ...
''.[Haines, T., James, J. ]
Time of the Titans
''. ABC Online. The original description of the spines noted that the specimens in the Howe Quarry near Shell, Wyoming
Shell is a census-designated place (CDP) in Big Horn County, Wyoming, United States. The population was 83 at the 2010 Census.
The community is named for the abundance of fossil shells located in the area. Nearby exposed formations such as the ...
were associated with skeletal remains of an undescribed diplodocid "resembling ''Diplodocus'' and ''Barosaurus
''Barosaurus'' ( ) was a giant, long-tailed, long-necked, plant-eating sauropod dinosaur closely related to the more familiar ''Diplodocus''. Remains have been found in the Morrison Formation from the Upper Jurassic Period of Utah and South Da ...
''."[ Specimens from this quarry have since been referred to '' Kaatedocus siberi'' and ''Barosaurus'' sp., rather than ''Diplodocus''.]
Fossilized skin of ''Diplodocus'' sp., discovered at the Mother's Day Quarry
The Mother's Day Quarry (MDQ) is a Late Jurassic (Kimmeridgian) fossil site in the Morrison Formation that is located at the base of the Pryor Mountains in Carbon County, Montana. The site was first discovered by the Museum of the Rockies in 1994 ...
, exhibits several different types of scale shapes including rectangular, polygonal, pebble, ovoid, dome, and globular. These scales range in size and shape depending upon their location on the integument, the smallest of which reach about 1mm while the largest 10 mm. Some of these scales show orientations that may indicate where they belonged on the body. For instance, the ovoid scales are closely clustered together and look similar to scales in modern reptiles that are located dorsally. Another orientation on the fossil consists of arching rows of square scales that interrupts nearby polygonal scale patterning. It is noted that the arching scale rows look similar to the scale orientations seen around crocodilia
Crocodilia (or Crocodylia, both ) is an order of mostly large, predatory, semiaquatic reptiles, known as crocodilians. They first appeared 95 million years ago in the Late Cretaceous period ( Cenomanian stage) and are the closest livi ...
n limbs, suggesting that this area may have also originated from around a limb on the ''Diplodocus''. The skin fossil itself is small in size, reaching less than 70 cm in length. Due to the vast amount of scale diversity seen within such a small area, as well as the scales being smaller in comparison to other diplodocid scale fossils, and the presence of small and potentially “juvenile” material at the Mother’s Day Quarry, it is hypothesized that the skin originated from a small or even “juvenile” ''Diplodocus''.
Discovery and history
Bone Wars and ''Diplodocus longus''
The first record of ''Diplodocus'' comes from Marshall P. Felch’s quarry at Garden Park near Cañon City, Colorado
Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the ...
, when several fossils were collected by Benjamin Mudge
Benjamin Franklin Mudge (August 11, 1817 – November 21, 1879) was an American lawyer, geologist and teacher. Briefly the mayor of Lynn, Massachusetts, he later moved to Kansas where he was appointed the first State Geologist. He led the fi ...
and Samuel Wendell Williston
Samuel Wendell Williston (July 10, 1852 – August 30, 1918) was an American educator, entomologist, and paleontologist who was the first to propose that birds developed flight cursorially (by running), rather than arboreally (by leaping from tr ...
in 1877. The first specimen (YPM VP 1920) was very incomplete, consisting only of 2 complete caudal vertebrae, a chevron, and several other fragmentary caudal vertebrae. The specimen was sent to the Yale Peabody Museum and was named ''Diplodocus longus'' ('long double-beam') by paleontologist
Paleontology (), also spelled palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and sometimes including, the start of the Holocene epoch (roughly 11,700 years before present). It includes the study of fossi ...
Othniel Charles Marsh
Othniel Charles Marsh (October 29, 1831 – March 18, 1899) was an American professor of Paleontology in Yale College and President of the National Academy of Sciences. He was one of the preeminent scientists in the field of paleontology. Among ...
in 1878. Marsh named ''Diplodocus'' during the Bone Wars
The Bone Wars, also known as the Great Dinosaur Rush, was a period of intense and ruthlessly competitive fossil hunting and discovery during the Gilded Age of American history, marked by a heated rivalry between Edward Drinker Cope (of the Acad ...
, his competition with Philadelphian paleontologist Edward Drinker Cope
Edward Drinker Cope (July 28, 1840 – April 12, 1897) was an American zoologist, paleontologist, comparative anatomist, herpetologist, and ichthyologist. Born to a wealthy Quaker family, Cope distinguished himself as a child prodigy interes ...
to collect and describe as many fossil taxa as possible. Though several more complete specimens have been attributed to ''D. longus'',[Osborn, H. F. (1899)]
A skeleton of Diplodocus, recently mounted in the American Museum.
''Science'', ''10''(259), 870-874. detailed analysis has discovered that this type specimen is actually dubious, which is not an ideal situation for the type species of a well-known genus like ''Diplodocus''. A petition to the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature
The International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN) is an organization dedicated to "achieving stability and sense in the scientific naming of animals". Founded in 1895, it currently comprises 26 commissioners from 20 countries.
Orga ...
was being considered which proposed to make ''D. carnegii'' the new type species. This proposal was rejected by the ICZN and ''D. longus'' has been maintained as the type species.
Although the type specimen was very fragmentary, several additional diplodocid fossils were collected at Felch’s quarry from 1877 to 1884 and sent to Marsh, who then referred them to ''D. longus''. One specimen (USNM
The National Museum of Natural History is a natural history museum administered by the Smithsonian Institution, located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., United States. It has free admission and is open 364 days a year. In 2021, with ...
V 2672), an articulated complete skull, mandibles, and partial atlas was collected in 1883, and was the first complete Diplodocid skull to be reported.[McIntosh, J. S., & Carpenter, K. (1998)]
THE HOLOTYPE OF DIPLODOCUS LONGUS, WITH COMMENTS ON OTHER SPECIMENS.
''Modern Geology'', ''23'', 85-110. Tschopp ''et al.''’s analysis placed it as an indeterminate diplodocine in 2015 due to the lack of overlap with any diagnostic ''Diplodocus'' postcranial material, as was the fate with all skulls assigned to ''Diplodocus''.
Second Dinosaur Rush and ''Diplodocus carnegii''
After the end of the Bone Wars, many major institutions in the eastern United States were inspired by the depictions and finds by Marsh and Cope to assemble their own dinosaur fossil collections.[Brinkman, P. D. (2010). The second Jurassic dinosaur rush. University of Chicago Press.] The competition to mount the first sauropod skeleton specifically was the most intense, with the American Museum of Natural History
The American Museum of Natural History (abbreviated as AMNH) is a natural history museum on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. In Theodore Roosevelt Park, across the street from Central Park, the museum complex comprises 26 int ...
, Carnegie Museum of Natural History
The Carnegie Museum of Natural History (abbreviated as CMNH) is a natural history museum in the Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It was founded by Pittsburgh-based industrialist Andrew Carnegie in 1896.
Housing some 22 million ...
, and Field Museum of Natural History
The Field Museum of Natural History (FMNH), also known as The Field Museum, is a natural history museum in Chicago, Illinois, and is one of the largest such museums in the world. The museum is popular for the size and quality of its educational ...
all sending expeditions to the west to find the most complete sauropod specimen, bring it back to the home institution, and mount it in their fossil halls. The American Museum of Natural History was the first to launch an expedition, finding a semi-articulated partial postcranial skeleton containing many vertebrae of ''Diplodocus'' in at Como Bluff
Como Bluff is a long ridge extending east–west, located between the towns of Rock River and Medicine Bow, Wyoming. The ridge is an anticline, formed as a result of compressional geological folding. Three geological formations, the Sundance, th ...
in 1897. The skeleton (AMNH FR 223) was collected by Barnum Brown
Barnum Brown (February 12, 1873 – February 5, 1963), commonly referred to as Mr. Bones, was an American paleontologist. Named after the circus showman P. T. Barnum, he discovered the first documented remains of '' Tyrannosaurus'' during a career ...
and Henry Osborn, who shipped the specimen to the AMNH and it was briefly described in 1899 by Osborn, who referred it to ''D. longus''. It was later mounted—the first ''Diplodocus'' mount made—and was the first well preserved individual skeleton of ''Diplodocus'' discovered. In Emmanuel Tschopp ''et al''.'s phylogenetic analysis of Diplodocidae
Diplodocids, or members of the family Diplodocidae ("double beams"), are a group of sauropod dinosaurs. The family includes some of the longest creatures ever to walk the Earth, including ''Diplodocus'' and ''Supersaurus'', some of which may have ...
, AMNH FR 223 was found to be not a skeleton of ''D. longus'', but the later named species ''D. hallorum''.
The most notable ''Diplodocus'' find also came in 1899, when crew members from the Carnegie Museum of Natural History
The Carnegie Museum of Natural History (abbreviated as CMNH) is a natural history museum in the Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It was founded by Pittsburgh-based industrialist Andrew Carnegie in 1896.
Housing some 22 million ...
were collecting fossils in the Morrison Formation
The Morrison Formation is a distinctive sequence of Upper Jurassic sedimentary rock found in the western United States which has been the most fertile source of dinosaur fossils in North America. It is composed of mudstone, sandstone, siltston ...
of Sheep Creek Sheep Creek is a geographical place name. With variations, the name is given to hundreds of bodies of water, roads, canals, reservoirs and populated areas in the United States and other countries. It is the name of a tributary to Lockyear Creek in ...
, Wyoming
Wyoming () is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is bordered by Montana to the north and northwest, South Dakota and Nebraska to the east, Idaho to the west, Utah to the southwest, and Colorado to t ...
, with funding from Scottish-American steel tycoon Andrew Carnegie
Andrew Carnegie (, ; November 25, 1835August 11, 1919) was a Scottish-American industrialist and philanthropist. Carnegie led the expansion of the American steel industry in the late 19th century and became one of the richest Americans in ...
, they discovered a massive and well preserved skeleton of ''Diplodocus.'' The skeleton was collected that year by Jacob L. Wortman and several other crewmen under his direction along with several specimens of ''Stegosaurus
''Stegosaurus'' (; ) is a genus of herbivorous, four-legged, armored dinosaur from the Late Jurassic, characterized by the distinctive kite-shaped upright plates along their backs and spikes on their tails. Fossils of the genus have been fou ...
'', ''Brontosaurus parvus
''Brontosaurus'' (; meaning "thunder lizard" from Greek , "thunder" and , "lizard") is a genus of gigantic quadruped sauropod dinosaurs. Although the type species, ''B. excelsus'', had long been considered a species of the closely related ''A ...
,'' and ''Camarasaurus
''Camarasaurus'' ( ) was a genus of quadrupedal, herbivorous dinosaurs and is the most common North American sauropod fossil. Its fossil remains have been found in the Morrison Formation, dating to the Late Jurassic epoch ( Kimmeridgian to ...
'' preserved alongside the skeleton. The skeleton (CM 84) was preserved in semi articulation and was very complete, including 41 well preserved vertebrae from the mid caudals to the anterior cervicals, 18 ribs, 2 sternal ribs, a partial pelvis, right scapulocoracoid The scapulocoracoid is the unit of the pectoral girdle that contains the coracoid and scapula.
The coracoid itself is a beak-shaped bone that is commonly found in most vertebrates with a few exceptions.
The scapula is commonly known as the ''shoulde ...
, and right femur. In 1900, Carnegie crews returned to Sheep Creek, this expedition led by John Bell Hatcher
John Bell Hatcher (October 11, 1861 – July 3, 1904) was an American paleontologist and fossil hunter known as the "king of collectors" and best known for discovering ''Torosaurus'' and ''Triceratops'', two genera of dinosaurs described by O ...
, William Jacob Holland
Rev William Jacob Holland FRSE LLD (August 16, 1848 – December 13, 1932) was the eighth Chancellor of the University of Pittsburgh (1891–1901) and Director of the Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh. He was an accomplished zoologist and paleontolo ...
, and Charles Gilmore, and discovered another well preserved skeleton of ''Diplodocus'' adjacent to the specimen collected in 1899. The second skeleton (CM 94) was from a smaller individual and had preserved fewer vertebrae, but preserved more caudal vertebrae and appendicular remains than CM 84. Both of the skeletons were named and described in great detail by John Bell Hatcher in 1901, with Hatcher making CM 84 the type specimen of a new species of ''Diplodocus'', ''Diplodocus carnegii'' ("Andrew Carnegie
Andrew Carnegie (, ; November 25, 1835August 11, 1919) was a Scottish-American industrialist and philanthropist. Carnegie led the expansion of the American steel industry in the late 19th century and became one of the richest Americans in ...
's double beam"), with CM 94 becoming the paratype.
It wasn't until 1907, that the Carnegie Museum of Natural History created a composite mount of ''Diplodocus carnegii'' that incorporated CM 84 and CM 94 along with several other specimens and even other taxa were used to complete the mount, including a skull molded based on USNM 2673, a skull assigned to '' Galeamopus pabsti''. The Carnegie Museum mount became very popular, being nicknamed " Dippy" by the populace, eventually being cast and sent to museums in London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
, Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitu ...
, Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. Si ...
, Vienna
en, Viennese
, iso_code = AT-9
, registration_plate = W
, postal_code_type = Postal code
, postal_code =
, timezone = CET
, utc_offset = +1
, timezone_DST ...
, Bologna
Bologna (, , ; egl, label= Emilian, Bulåggna ; lat, Bononia) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in Northern Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different na ...
, St. Petersburg
Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...
, Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...
, Madrid
Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...
, and Mexico City
Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital and largest city of Mexico, and the most populous city in North America. One of the world's alpha cities, it is located in the Valley o ...
from 1905 to 1928. The London cast specifically became very popular; its casting was requested by King Edward VII
Edward VII (Albert Edward; 9 November 1841 – 6 May 1910) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and Emperor of India, from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910.
The second child and eldest son of Queen Victoria an ...
and it was the first sauropod mount put on display outside of the United States. The goal of Carnegie in sending these casts overseas was apparently to bring international unity and mutual interest around the discovery of the dinosaur.
Dinosaur National Monument
The Carnegie Museum of Natural History made another landmark discovery in 1909 when Earl Douglass unearthed several caudal vertebrae from ''Apatosaurus'' in what is now Dinosaur National Monument
Dinosaur National Monument is an American national monument located on the southeast flank of the Uinta Mountains on the border between Colorado and Utah at the confluence of the Green and Yampa rivers. Although most of the monument area is i ...
on the border region between Colorado and Utah, with the sandstone dating to the Kimmeridgian
In the geologic timescale, the Kimmeridgian is an age in the Late Jurassic Epoch and a stage in the Upper Jurassic Series. It spans the time between 157.3 ± 1.0 Ma and 152.1 ± 0.9 Ma (million years ago). The Kimmeridgian follows the Oxford ...
of the Morrison Formation
The Morrison Formation is a distinctive sequence of Upper Jurassic sedimentary rock found in the western United States which has been the most fertile source of dinosaur fossils in North America. It is composed of mudstone, sandstone, siltston ...
. From 1909 to 1922, with the Carnegie Museum excavating the quarry, eventually unearthing over 120 dinosaur individuals and 1,600+ bones, many of the associated skeletons being very complete and are on display in several American museums. In 1912, Douglass found a semi articulated skull of a diplodocine with mandibles (CM 11161) in the Monument. Another skull (CM 3452) was found by Carnegie crews in 1915, bearing 6 articulated cervical vertebrae and mandibles, and another skull with mandibles (CM 1155) was found in 1923. All of the skulls found at Dinosaur National Monument were shipped back to Pittsburgh and described by William Jacob Holland
Rev William Jacob Holland FRSE LLD (August 16, 1848 – December 13, 1932) was the eighth Chancellor of the University of Pittsburgh (1891–1901) and Director of the Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh. He was an accomplished zoologist and paleontolo ...
in detail in 1924, who referred the specimens to ''D. longus''.[Holland WJ. (1924) The skull of ''Diplodocus''. Memoirs of the Carnegie Museum IX; 379–403.] This assignment was also questioned by Tschopp, who stated that all of the aforementioned skulls could not be referred to any specific diplodocine. Hundreds of assorted postcranial elements were found in the Monument that have been referred to ''Diplodocus'', but few have been properly described. A nearly complete skull of a juvenile ''Diplodocus'' was collected by Douglass in 1921, and it is the first known from a ''Diplodocus''.
Another ''Diplodocus'' skeleton was collected at the Carnegie Quarry in Dinosaur National Monument, Utah, by the National Museum of Natural History
The National Museum of Natural History is a natural history museum administered by the Smithsonian Institution, located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., United States. It has free admission and is open 364 days a year. In 2021, with 7. ...
in 1923. The skeleton (USNM V 10865) is one of the most complete known from ''Diplodocus'', consisting of a semi-articulated partial postcranial skeleton, including a well preserved dorsal column. The skeleton was briefly described by Charles Gilmore in 1932, who also referred it to ''D. longus'', and it was mounted in the fossil hall at the National Museum of Natural History the same year. In Emmanuel Tschopp ''et al''.'s phylogenetic analysis of Diplodocidae, USNM V 10865 was also found to be an individual of ''D. hallorum''.
The Denver Museum of Nature and Science
The Denver Museum of Nature & Science is a municipal natural history and science museum in Denver, Colorado. It is a resource for informal science education in the Rocky Mountain region. A variety of exhibitions, programs, and activities help mus ...
also collected a ''Diplodocus'' specimen in Dinosaur National Monument, a partial postcranial skeleton including cervical vertebrae, that was later mounted in the museum. Although not described in detail, Tschopp and colleagues determined that this skeleton also belonged to ''D. hallorum''.
Recent discoveries and ''Diplodocus hallorum''
Few ''Diplodocus'' finds came for many years until 1979, when three hikers came across several vertebrae stuck in elevated stone next to several petroglyph
A petroglyph is an image created by removing part of a rock surface by incising, picking, carving, or abrading, as a form of rock art. Outside North America, scholars often use terms such as "carving", "engraving", or other descriptions ...
s in a canyon west of San Ysidro
San Ysidro (Spanish for " St. Isidore", ) is a district of the City of San Diego, immediately north of the Mexico–United States border. It neighbors Otay Mesa West to the north, Otay Mesa to the east, and Nestor and the Tijuana River Valley ...
, New Mexico
)
, population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano)
, seat = Santa Fe, New Mexico, Santa Fe
, LargestCity = Albuquerque, New Mexico, Albuquerque
, LargestMetro = Albuquerque metropolitan area, Tiguex
, Offi ...
. The find was reported to the New Mexican Museum of Natural History, who dispatched an expedition led by David D. Gillette in 1985, that collected the specimen after several visits from 1985 to 1990. The specimen was preserved in semi-articulation, including 230 gastrolith
A gastrolith, also called a stomach stone or gizzard stone, is a rock held inside a gastrointestinal tract. Gastroliths in some species are retained in the muscular gizzard and used to grind food in animals lacking suitable grinding teeth. In oth ...
s, with several vertebrae, partial pelvis, and right femur and was prepared and deposited at the New Mexican Museum of Natural History under NMMNH P-3690. The specimen was not described until 1991 in the Journal of Paleontology, where Gillette named it ''Seismosaurus halli'' (Jim and Ruth Hall's seismic lizard)'','' though in 1994, Gillette published an amendment changing the name to ''S. hallorum.''[Schein, J. P., Poole, J. C., Schmidt, R. W., & Rooney, L. (2019). Reopening the Mother’s Day Quarry (Jurassic Morrison Formation, Montana) is yielding new information. In ''Geological Society of America–Annual Meeting, Arizona'' (pp. 22-25).] In 2004 and later 2006, ''Seismosaurus'' was synonymized with ''Diplodocus'' and even suggested to be synonymous with the dubious ''D. longus'' and later Tschopp ''et al.'''s phylogenetic analysis in 2015 supported the idea that many specimens referred to ''D. longus'' actually belonged to ''D. hallorum''.
In 1994, the Museum of the Rockies
Museum of the Rockies is a museum in Bozeman, Montana. Originally affiliated with Montana State University in Bozeman, and now also, the Smithsonian Institution, the museum is largely known for its paleontological collections. The Museum houses ...
discovered a very productive fossil site at Mother's Day Quarry
The Mother's Day Quarry (MDQ) is a Late Jurassic (Kimmeridgian) fossil site in the Morrison Formation that is located at the base of the Pryor Mountains in Carbon County, Montana. The site was first discovered by the Museum of the Rockies in 1994 ...
in Carbon County, Montana
Carbon County is a county located in the U.S. state of Montana. As of the 2020 census, the population was 10,473. Its county seat is Red Lodge.
Carbon County is part of the Billings, MT Metropolitan Statistical Area.
History
Carbon County wa ...
from the Salt Wash member of the Morrison Formation
The Morrison Formation is a distinctive sequence of Upper Jurassic sedimentary rock found in the western United States which has been the most fertile source of dinosaur fossils in North America. It is composed of mudstone, sandstone, siltston ...
that was later excavated by the Cincinnati Museum of Natural History and Science
The Cincinnati Museum Center is a museum complex operating out of the Cincinnati Union Terminal in the Queensgate, Cincinnati, Ohio, Queensgate neighborhood of Cincinnati, Ohio. It houses museums, theater, a library, and a symphonic pipe organ, a ...
in 1996, and after that the Bighorn Basin Paleontological Institute
The Elevation Science Institute (ESI), formerly known as the Bighorn Basin Paleontological Institute, is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to paleontology and earth science research, education, and outreach. The organization conducts ...
in 2017. The quarry was very productive, having mostly isolated ''Diplodocus'' bones from juveniles to adults in pristine preservation. The quarry notably had a great disparity between the amount of juveniles and adults in the quarry, as well as the frequent preservation of skin impressions, pathologies
Pathology is the study of the causes and effects of disease or injury. The word ''pathology'' also refers to the study of disease in general, incorporating a wide range of biology research fields and medical practices. However, when used in ...
, and some articulated specimens from ''Diplodocus.'' One specimen, a nearly complete skull of a juvenile ''Diplodocus'', was found at the quarry and is one of few known and highlighted ontogenetic dietary changes in the genus.
Classification and species
Phylogeny
''Diplodocus'' is both the type genus
In biological taxonomy, the type genus is the genus which defines a biological family and the root of the family name.
Zoological nomenclature
According to the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature, "The name-bearing type of a nominal ...
of, and gives its name to, the Diplodocidae, the family in which it belongs. Members of this family, while still massive, have a markedly more slender build than other sauropods, such as the titanosaur
Titanosaurs (or titanosaurians; members of the group Titanosauria) were a diverse group of sauropod dinosaurs, including genera from all seven continents. The titanosaurs were the last surviving group of long-necked sauropods, with taxa still thr ...
s and brachiosaurs. All are characterised by long necks and tails and a horizontal posture, with forelimbs shorter than hind limbs. Diplodocids flourished in the Late Jurassic of North America and possibly Africa.
A subfamily, the Diplodocinae
Diplodocinae is an extinct subfamily of diplodocid sauropods that existed from the Late Jurassic to Early Cretaceous of North America, Europe, Africa and South America, about 161.2 to 136.4 million years ago. Genera within the subfamily include ' ...
, was erected to include ''Diplodocus'' and its closest relatives, including ''Barosaurus''. More distantly related is the contemporaneous ''Apatosaurus'', which is still considered a diplodocid, although not a diplodocine, as it is a member of the sister subfamily Apatosaurinae
Apatosaurinae is a subfamily of diplodocid sauropods that existed between 157 and 150 million years ago in North America. The group includes two genera for certain, ''Apatosaurus'' and ''Brontosaurus
''Brontosaurus'' (; meaning "thunder liz ...
. The Portuguese '' Dinheirosaurus'' and the African ''Tornieria
''Tornieria'' ("for Tornier") is a genus of diplodocid sauropod dinosaur from the Late Jurassic in Lindi Region of Tanzania. It has a convoluted taxonomic history.
Discovery and naming
In 1907, German paleontologist Eberhard Fraas who wa ...
'' have also been identified as close relatives of ''Diplodocus'' by some authors. Diplodocoidea
Diplodocoidea is a superfamily of sauropod dinosaurs, which included some of the longest animals of all time, including slender giants like ''Supersaurus'', ''Diplodocus'', ''Apatosaurus'', and ''Amphicoelias''. Most had very long necks and long, ...
comprises the diplodocids, as well as the dicraeosaurid
Dicraeosauridae is a family of diplodocoid sauropods who are the sister group to Diplodocidae. Dicraeosaurids are a part of the Flagellicaudata, along with Diplodocidae. Dicraeosauridae includes genera such as ''Amargasaurus'', ''Suuwassea'', ' ...
s, rebbachisaurid
Rebbachisauridae is a family of sauropod dinosaurs known from fragmentary fossil remains from the Cretaceous of South America, Africa, North America, Europe and possibly Central Asia.
Taxonomy
In 1990 sauropod specialist Jack McIntosh includ ...
s, ''Suuwassea
''Suuwassea'' is a genus of Dicraeosauridae, dicraeosaurid sauropod dinosaur found in the Upper Jurassic strata of the Morrison Formation, located in southern Carbon County, Montana, Carbon County, Montana, United States. The fossil remains were ...
'', ''Amphicoelias
''Amphicoelias'' (, meaning "biconcave", from the Greek ἀμφί, ''amphi'': "on both sides", and κοῖλος, ''koilos'': "hollow, concave") is a genus of herbivorous sauropod dinosaur that lived approximately 150 million years ago during ...
'' possibly ''Haplocanthosaurus
''Haplocanthosaurus'' (meaning "simple spined lizard") is a genus of intermediate sauropod dinosaur. Two species, ''H. delfsi'' and ''H. priscus'', are known from incomplete fossil skeletons. It lived during the late Jurassic period (Kimmeridgia ...
'', and/or the nemegtosaurid
Nemegtosauridae is a Scientific classification, family of titanosaurian sauropod dinosaurs based on their diplodocidae, diplodocid-like skulls. Only three species are known: ''Nemegtosaurus'', ''Quaesitosaurus'' and possibly ''Tapuiasaurus'', each ...
s. The clade
A clade (), also known as a monophyletic group or natural group, is a group of organisms that are monophyletic – that is, composed of a common ancestor and all its lineal descendants – on a phylogenetic tree. Rather than the English ter ...
is the sister group to Macronaria
Macronaria is a clade of sauropod dinosaurs. Macronarians are named after the large diameter of the nasal opening of their skull, known as the external naris, which exceeded the size of the orbit, the skull opening where the eye is located (hence ...
( camarasaurids, brachiosaurid
The Brachiosauridae ("arm lizards", from Greek ''brachion'' (βραχίων) = "arm" and ''sauros'' = "lizard") are a family or clade of herbivorous, quadrupedal sauropod dinosaurs. Brachiosaurids had long necks that enabled them to access the le ...
s and titanosaurians).
A Cladogram
A cladogram (from Greek ''clados'' "branch" and ''gramma'' "character") is a diagram used in cladistics to show relations among organisms. A cladogram is not, however, an evolutionary tree because it does not show how ancestors are related to ...
of the Diplodocidae after Tschopp, Mateus, and Benson (2015) below:
Valid species
* ''D. carnegii'' (also spelled ''D. carnegiei''), named after Andrew Carnegie
Andrew Carnegie (, ; November 25, 1835August 11, 1919) was a Scottish-American industrialist and philanthropist. Carnegie led the expansion of the American steel industry in the late 19th century and became one of the richest Americans in ...
, is the best known, mainly due to a near-complete skeleton known as Dippy (specimen CM 84) collected by Jacob Wortman, of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History
The Carnegie Museum of Natural History (abbreviated as CMNH) is a natural history museum in the Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It was founded by Pittsburgh-based industrialist Andrew Carnegie in 1896.
Housing some 22 million ...
in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...
, and described and named by John Bell Hatcher
John Bell Hatcher (October 11, 1861 – July 3, 1904) was an American paleontologist and fossil hunter known as the "king of collectors" and best known for discovering ''Torosaurus'' and ''Triceratops'', two genera of dinosaurs described by O ...
in 1901. It was reconsidered as the type species
In zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the species that contains the biological type specim ...
for ''Diplodocus''.
* ''D. hallorum'', first described in 1991 by Gillette as ''Seismosaurus halli'' from a partial skeleton comprising vertebrae, pelvis and ribs (specimen NMMNH P-3690). As the specific name honours two people, Jim and Ruth Hall (of Ghost Ranch
Ghost Ranch is a retreat and education center located close to the village of Abiquiú in Rio Arriba County in north central New Mexico, United States. It was the home and studio of Georgia O'Keeffe, as well as the subject of many of her painti ...
), George Olshevsky
George may refer to:
People
* George (given name)
* George (surname)
* George (singer), American-Canadian singer George Nozuka, known by the mononym George
* George Washington, First President of the United States
* George W. Bush, 43rd Preside ...
later suggested to emend the name as ''S. hallorum'', using the mandatory genitive
In grammar, the genitive case ( abbreviated ) is the grammatical case that marks a word, usually a noun, as modifying another word, also usually a noun—thus indicating an attributive relationship of one noun to the other noun. A genitive can a ...
plural; Gillette then emended the name, which usage has been followed by others, including Carpenter (2006). In 2004, a presentation at the annual conference of the Geological Society of America
The Geological Society of America (GSA) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the advancement of the geosciences.
History
The society was founded in Ithaca, New York, in 1888 by Alexander Winchell, John J. Stevenson, Charles H. Hitch ...
made a case for ''Seismosaurus'' being a junior synonym
The Botanical and Zoological Codes of nomenclature treat the concept of synonymy differently.
* In botanical nomenclature, a synonym is a scientific name that applies to a taxon that (now) goes by a different scientific name. For example, Linn ...
of ''Diplodocus''. This was followed by a much more detailed publication in 2006, which not only renamed the species ''Diplodocus hallorum'', but also speculated that it could prove to be the same as ''D. longus''. The position that ''D. hallorum'' should be regarded as a specimen of ''D. longus'' was also taken by the authors of a redescription of ''Supersaurus
''Supersaurus'' (meaning "super lizard") is a genus of diplodocid sauropod dinosaur that lived in North America during the Late Jurassic period. The type species, ''S. vivianae'', was first discovered by Vivian Jones of Delta, Colorado, in ...
'', refuting a previous hypothesis that ''Seismosaurus'' and ''Supersaurus'' were the same. A 2015 analysis of diplodocid relationships noted that these opinions are based on the more complete referred specimens of ''D. longus''. The authors of this analysis concluded that those specimens were indeed the same species as ''D. hallorum'', but that ''D. longus'' itself was a ''nomen dubium''.
''Nomina dubia'' (doubtful species)
* ''D. longus'', the type species, is known from two complete and several fragmentary caudal vertebrae from the Morrison Formation (Felch Quarry) of Colorado. Though several more complete specimens have been attributed to ''D. longus'', detailed analysis has suggested that the original fossil lacks the necessary features to allow comparison with other specimens. For this reason, it has been considered a ''nomen dubium
In binomial nomenclature, a ''nomen dubium'' (Latin for "doubtful name", plural ''nomina dubia'') is a scientific name that is of unknown or doubtful application.
Zoology
In case of a ''nomen dubium'' it may be impossible to determine whether a s ...
'', which Tschopp et al. regarded as not an ideal situation for the type species of a well-known genus like ''Diplodocus''. A petition to the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature
The International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN) is an organization dedicated to "achieving stability and sense in the scientific naming of animals". Founded in 1895, it currently comprises 26 commissioners from 20 countries.
Orga ...
(ICZN) was being considered, which proposed to make ''D. carnegii'' the new type species. The proposal was rejected by the ICZN and ''D. longus'' has been maintained as the type species. However, in comments responding to the petition, some authors regarded ''D. longus'' as potentially valid after all.
* ''D. lacustris'' ("of the lake") is a ''nomen dubium'' named by Marsh in 1884 based on specimen YPM 1922 found by Arthur Lakes, consisting of the snout and upper jaw of a smaller animal from Morrison, Colorado
The Town of Morrison is a home rule municipality in Jefferson County, Colorado, United States. The population was 428 at the 2010 census. Red Rocks Amphitheatre is located nearby.
History
This small foothills settlement is named after George ...
. The remains are now believed to have been from an immature animal, rather than from a separate species. Mossbrucker ''et al''., 2013 surmised that the dentary and teeth of ''Diplodocus lacustris'' was actually from ''Apatosaurus ajax.'' Later in 2015, it was concluded that the snout of the specimen actually belonged to ''Camarasaurus''.
Formerly assigned species
* ''Diplodocus hayi'' was named by William Jacob Holland
Rev William Jacob Holland FRSE LLD (August 16, 1848 – December 13, 1932) was the eighth Chancellor of the University of Pittsburgh (1891–1901) and Director of the Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh. He was an accomplished zoologist and paleontolo ...
in 1924 based on a braincase and partial postcranial skeleton ( HMNS 175), including a nearly complete vertebral column, found in the Morrison Formation strata near Sheridan, Wyoming
Sheridan is a town in the U.S. state of Wyoming and the county seat of Sheridan County. The town is located halfway between Yellowstone Park and Mount Rushmore by U.S. Route 14 and 16. It is the principal town of the Sheridan, Wyoming, Microp ...
. ''D. hayi'' remained a species of ''Diplodocus'' until reassessment by Emmanuel Tschopp and colleagues determined that it was its own genus, '' Galeamopus'', in 2015. The reassessment also found that the skulls AMNH 969 and USNM 2673 were not ''Diplodocus'' either and actually referred specimens of ''Galeamopus''.
Paleobiology
Due to a wealth of skeletal remains, ''Diplodocus'' is one of the best-studied dinosaurs. Many aspects of its lifestyle have been subjects of various theories over the years.[ Comparisons between the ]scleral ring
Sclerotic rings are rings of bone found in the eyes of many animals in several groups of vertebrates, except for mammals and crocodilians. They can be made up of single bones or multiple segments and take their name from the sclera. They are beli ...
s of diplodocines and modern birds and reptiles suggest that they may have been cathemeral
Cathemerality, sometimes called metaturnality, is an organismal activity pattern of irregular intervals during the day or night in which food is acquired, socializing with other organisms occurs, and any other activities necessary for livelihood ar ...
, active throughout the day at short intervals.
Marsh and then Hatcher[Hatcher, J. B. (1901). ''Diplodocus'' (Marsh)'': its osteology, taxonomy, and probable habits, with a restoration of the skeleton'' (Vol. 1, No. 1-4). Carnegie institute.] assumed that the animal was aquatic, because of the position of its nasal openings at the apex of the cranium. Similar aquatic behavior was commonly depicted for other large sauropods, such as ''Brachiosaurus'' and ''Apatosaurus''. A 1951 study by Kenneth A. Kermack
Kenneth A. Kermack (1919 – 2000) was a British palaeontologist at University College London most notable for his work on early mammals with his wife, Doris Mary Kermack
Doris Mary Kermack FLS (née Carr; 1923 – 2003) was a Briti ...
indicates that sauropods probably could not have breathed through their nostrils when the rest of the body was submerged, as the water pressure on the chest wall would be too great. Since the 1970s, general consensus has the sauropods as firmly terrestrial animals, browsing on trees, ferns, and bushes.[Gangewere, J.R. (1999).]
Diplodocus carnegii
". Carnegie Magazine.
Scientists have debated as to how sauropods were able to breathe with their large body sizes and long necks, which would have increased the amount of dead space
''Dead Space'' is a science fiction/ horror media franchise created by Glen Schofield and Michael Condrey, developed by Visceral Games, and published and owned by Electronic Arts. The franchise's chronology is not presented in a linear format; e ...
. They likely had an avian respiratory system, which is more efficient than a mammalian
Mammals () are a group of vertebrate animals constituting the class Mammalia (), characterized by the presence of mammary glands which in females produce milk for feeding (nursing) their young, a neocortex (a region of the brain), fu ...
and reptilian system. Reconstructions of the neck and thorax of ''Diplodocus'' show great pneumaticity, which could have played a role in respiration as it does in birds.
Posture
The depiction of ''Diplodocus'' posture has changed considerably over the years. For instance, a classic 1910 reconstruction by Oliver P. Hay
Oliver may refer to:
Arts, entertainment and literature
Books
* ''Oliver the Western Engine'', volume 24 in ''The Railway Series'' by Rev. W. Awdry
* ''Oliver Twist'', a novel by Charles Dickens
Fictional characters
* Ariadne Oliver, ...
depicts two ''Diplodocus'' with splayed lizard-like limbs on the banks of a river. Hay argued that ''Diplodocus'' had a sprawling, lizard-like gait with widely splayed legs, and was supported by Gustav Tornier
Gustav Tornier (Dąbrowa Chełmińska, Dombrowken (today Dąbrowa Chełmińska, Poland), 9 May 1858 – Berlin, 25 April 1938) was a Germans, German zoologist and Herpetology, herpetologist.
Life and career
Tornier was born in the Kingdom of Prus ...
. This hypothesis was contested by William Jacob Holland
Rev William Jacob Holland FRSE LLD (August 16, 1848 – December 13, 1932) was the eighth Chancellor of the University of Pittsburgh (1891–1901) and Director of the Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh. He was an accomplished zoologist and paleontolo ...
, who demonstrated that a sprawling ''Diplodocus'' would have needed a trench through which to pull its belly. Finds of sauropod footprints in the 1930s eventually put Hay's theory to rest.[
]
Later, diplodocids were often portrayed with their necks held high up in the air, allowing them to graze from tall trees. Studies looking at the morphology of sauropod necks have concluded that the neutral posture of ''Diplodocus'' neck was close to horizontal, rather than vertical, and scientists such as Kent Stevens have used this to argue that sauropods including ''Diplodocus'' did not raise their heads much above shoulder level. A nuchal ligament
The nuchal ligament is a ligament at the back of the neck that is continuous with the supraspinous ligament.
Structure
The nuchal ligament extends from the external occipital protuberance on the skull and median nuchal line to the spinous proc ...
may have held the neck in this position. A 2009 study found that all tetrapod
Tetrapods (; ) are four-limbed vertebrate animals constituting the superclass Tetrapoda (). It includes extant and extinct amphibians, sauropsids ( reptiles, including dinosaurs and therefore birds) and synapsids ( pelycosaurs, extinct t ...
s appear to hold the base of their necks at the maximum possible vertical extension when in a normal, alert posture, and argued that the same would hold true for sauropods barring any unknown, unique characteristics that set the soft tissue anatomy of their necks apart from other animals. The study found faults with Stevens' assumptions regarding the potential range of motion in sauropod necks, and based on comparing skeletons to living animals the study also argued that soft tissues could have increased flexibility more than the bones alone suggest. For these reasons they argued that ''Diplodocus'' would have held its neck at a more elevated angle than previous studies have concluded.
As with the related genus ''Barosaurus'', the very long neck of ''Diplodocus'' is the source of much controversy among scientists. A 1992 Columbia University
Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
study of diplodocid neck structure indicated that the longest necks would have required a 1.6-ton heart – a tenth of the animal's body weight. The study proposed that animals like these would have had rudimentary auxiliary "hearts" in their necks, whose only purpose was to pump blood up to the next "heart". Some argue that the near-horizontal posture of the head and neck would have eliminated the problem of supplying blood to the brain, as it would not be elevated.[
]
Diet and feeding
Diplodocines have highly unusual teeth compared to other sauropods. The crowns are long and slender, and elliptical in cross-section, while the apex forms a blunt, triangular point. The most prominent wear facet is on the apex, though unlike all other wear patterns observed within sauropods, diplodocine wear patterns are on the labial (cheek) side of both the upper and lower teeth. This implies that the feeding mechanism of ''Diplodocus'' and other diplodocids was radically different from that of other sauropods. Unilateral branch stripping is the most likely feeding behavior of ''Diplodocus'', as it explains the unusual wear patterns of the teeth (coming from tooth–food contact). In unilateral branch stripping, one tooth row would have been used to strip foliage from the stem, while the other would act as a guide and stabilizer. With the elongated preorbital (in front of the eyes) region of the skull, longer portions of stems could be stripped in a single action. Also, the palinal (backwards) motion of the lower jaws could have contributed two significant roles to feeding behavior: (1) an increased gape, and (2) allowed fine adjustments of the relative positions of the tooth rows, creating a smooth stripping action.
Young ''et al.'' (2012) used biomechanical modelling to examine the performance of the diplodocine skull. It was concluded that the proposal that its dentition was used for bark-stripping was not supported by the data, which showed that under that scenario, the skull and teeth would undergo extreme stresses. The hypotheses of branch-stripping and/or precision biting were both shown to be biomechanically plausible feeding behaviors. Diplodocine teeth were also continually replaced throughout their lives, usually in less than 35 days, as was discovered by Michael D'Emic ''et al.'' Within each tooth socket, as many as five replacement teeth were developing to replace the next one. Studies of the teeth also reveal that it preferred different vegetation from the other sauropods of the Morrison, such as ''Camarasaurus''. This may have better allowed the various species of sauropods to exist without competition.
The flexibility of ''Diplodocus'' neck is debated but it should have been able to browse from low levels to about 4 m (13 ft) when on all fours. However, studies have shown that the center of mass
In physics, the center of mass of a distribution of mass in space (sometimes referred to as the balance point) is the unique point where the weighted relative position of the distributed mass sums to zero. This is the point to which a force may ...
of ''Diplodocus'' was very close to the hip socket; this means that ''Diplodocus'' could rear up into a bipedal posture with relatively little effort. It also had the advantage of using its large tail as a 'prop' which would allow for a very stable tripodal posture. In a tripodal posture ''Diplodocus'' could potentially increase its feeding height up to about .
The neck's range of movement would have also allowed the head to graze below the level of the body, leading some scientists to speculate on whether ''Diplodocus'' grazed on submerged water plants, from riverbanks. This concept of the feeding posture is supported by the relative lengths of front and hind limbs. Furthermore, its peg-like teeth may have been used for eating soft water plants. Matthew Cobley ''et al''. (2013) disputed this, finding that large muscles and cartilage would have limited neck movements. They state that the feeding ranges for sauropods like ''Diplodocus'' were smaller than previously believed and the animals may have had to move their whole bodies around to better access areas where they could browse vegetation. As such, they might have spent more time foraging to meet their minimum energy needs. The conclusions of Cobley ''et al''. were disputed in 2013 and 2014 by Mike Taylor, who analysed the amount and positioning of intervertebral cartilage to determine the flexibility of the neck of ''Diplodocus'' and ''Apatosaurus''. Taylor found that the neck of ''Diplodocus'' was very flexible, and that Cobley '' et al.'' was incorrect, in that flexibility as implied by bones is less than in reality.
In 2010, Whitlock ''et al.'' described a juvenile skull at the time referred to ''Diplodocus'' (CM 11255) that differed greatly from adult skulls of the same genus: its snout was not blunt, and the teeth were not confined to the front of the snout. These differences suggest that adults and juveniles were feeding differently. Such an ecological difference between adults and juveniles had not been previously observed in sauropodomorphs.
Reproduction and growth
While the long neck has traditionally been interpreted as a feeding adaptation, it was also suggested that the oversized neck of ''Diplodocus'' and its relatives may have been primarily a sexual display, with any other feeding benefits coming second. A 2011 study refuted this idea in detail.
While no evidence indicates ''Diplodocus'' nesting habits, other sauropods, such as the titanosaurian ''Saltasaurus
''Saltasaurus'' (which means "lizard from Salta") is a genus of saltasaurid dinosaur of the Late Cretaceous period of Argentina. Small among sauropods, though still heavy by the standards of modern creatures, ''Saltasaurus'' was characterized by ...
'', have been associated with nesting sites. The titanosaurian nesting sites indicate that they may have laid their eggs communally over a large area in many shallow pits, each covered with vegetation. ''Diplodocus'' may have done the same. The documentary ''Walking with Dinosaurs
''Walking with Dinosaurs'' is a 1999 six-part nature documentary television miniseries created by Tim Haines and produced by the BBC Science Unit the Discovery Channel and BBC Worldwide, in association with TV Asahi, ProSieben and France 3. Envi ...
'' portrayed a mother ''Diplodocus'' using an ovipositor
The ovipositor is a tube-like organ used by some animals, especially insects, for the laying of eggs. In insects, an ovipositor consists of a maximum of three pairs of appendages. The details and morphology of the ovipositor vary, but typical ...
to lay eggs, but it was pure speculation on the part of the documentary author.[ For ''Diplodocus'' and other sauropods, the size of clutches and individual eggs were surprisingly small for such large animals. This appears to have been an adaptation to predation pressures, as large eggs would require greater incubation time and thus would be at greater risk.
Based on a number of bone ]histology
Histology,
also known as microscopic anatomy or microanatomy, is the branch of biology which studies the microscopic anatomy of biological tissues. Histology is the microscopic counterpart to gross anatomy, which looks at larger structures v ...
studies, ''Diplodocus'', along with other sauropods, grew at a very fast rate, reaching sexual maturity
Sexual maturity is the capability of an organism to reproduce. In humans it might be considered synonymous with adulthood, but here puberty is the name for the process of biological sexual maturation, while adulthood is based on cultural definit ...
at just over a decade, and continuing to grow throughout their lives.
Paleoecology
The Morrison Formation is a sequence of shallow marine and alluvial sediments which, according to radiometric dating
Radiometric dating, radioactive dating or radioisotope dating is a technique which is used to date materials such as rocks or carbon, in which trace radioactive impurities were selectively incorporated when they were formed. The method compares ...
, ranges between 156.3 million years old ( Ma) at its base, and 146.8 million years old at the top, which places it in the late Oxfordian, Kimmeridgian
In the geologic timescale, the Kimmeridgian is an age in the Late Jurassic Epoch and a stage in the Upper Jurassic Series. It spans the time between 157.3 ± 1.0 Ma and 152.1 ± 0.9 Ma (million years ago). The Kimmeridgian follows the Oxford ...
, and early Tithonian
In the geological timescale, the Tithonian is the latest age of the Late Jurassic Epoch and the uppermost stage of the Upper Jurassic Series. It spans the time between 152.1 ± 4 Ma and 145.0 ± 4 Ma (million years ago). It is preceded by ...
stages of the Late Jurassic period. This formation is interpreted as a semi-arid
A semi-arid climate, semi-desert climate, or steppe climate is a dry climate sub-type. It is located on regions that receive precipitation below potential evapotranspiration, but not as low as a desert climate. There are different kinds of semi- ...
environment with distinct wet and dry seasons. The Morrison Basin, where many dinosaurs lived, stretched from New Mexico to Alberta and Saskatchewan, and was formed when the precursors to the Front Range
The Front Range is a mountain range of the Southern Rocky Mountains of North America located in the central portion of the U.S. State of Colorado, and southeastern portion of the U.S. State of Wyoming. It is the first mountain range encountered ...
of the Rocky Mountains
The Rocky Mountains, also known as the Rockies, are a major mountain range and the largest mountain system in North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch in straight-line distance from the northernmost part of western Canada, to New Mexico ...
started pushing up to the west. The deposits from their east-facing drainage basin
A drainage basin is an area of land where all flowing surface water converges to a single point, such as a river mouth, or flows into another body of water, such as a lake or ocean. A basin is separated from adjacent basins by a perimeter, ...
s were carried by streams and river
A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases, a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of ...
s and deposited in swamp
A swamp is a forested wetland.Keddy, P.A. 2010. Wetland Ecology: Principles and Conservation (2nd edition). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. 497 p. Swamps are considered to be transition zones because both land and water play a role in ...
y lowlands, lakes, river channels, and floodplain
A floodplain or flood plain or bottomlands is an area of land adjacent to a river which stretches from the banks of its channel to the base of the enclosing valley walls, and which experiences flooding during periods of high discharge.Goudi ...
s. This formation is similar in age to the Lourinha Formation in Portugal
Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of th ...
and the Tendaguru Formation
The Tendaguru Formation, or Tendaguru Beds are a highly fossiliferous formation and Lagerstätte located in the Lindi Region of southeastern Tanzania. The formation represents the oldest sedimentary unit of the Mandawa Basin, overlying Neoproter ...
in Tanzania
Tanzania (; ), officially the United Republic of Tanzania ( sw, Jamhuri ya Muungano wa Tanzania), is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It borders Uganda to the north; Kenya to the northeast; Comoro Islands ...
.[
]
The Morrison Formation records an environment and time dominated by gigantic sauropod dinosaurs.[Foster, J. (2007). "Appendix." Jurassic West: The Dinosaurs of the Morrison Formation and Their World. Indiana University Press. pp. 327–329.] Dinosaurs known from the Morrison include the theropods ''Ceratosaurus
''Ceratosaurus'' (from Greek κέρας/κέρατος, ' meaning "horn" and σαῦρος ' meaning "lizard") was a carnivorous theropod dinosaur in the Late Jurassic period ( Kimmeridgian to Tithonian). The genus was first described in 1 ...
'', ''Koparion
''Koparion'' is a genus of small coelurosaurian theropod dinosaurs (probably troodontids), from the late Jurassic Period (Kimmeridgian stage), of Utah. It contains the single named species ''Koparion douglassi'' which is known only from a single ...
'', ''Stokesosaurus
''Stokesosaurus'' (meaning "Stokes' lizard") is a genus of small (around in length), carnivorous early tyrannosauroid theropod dinosaurs from the late Jurassic period of Utah, United States.
History
From 1960 onwards Utah geologist William ...
'', '' Ornitholestes'', ''Allosaurus'' and ''Torvosaurus
''Torvosaurus'' () is a genus of carnivorous megalosaurid theropod dinosaur that lived approximately 165 to 148 million years ago during the late Middle and Late Jurassic period (Callovian to Tithonian stages) in what is now Colorado, Portuga ...
'', the sauropods ''Apatosaurus'', ''Brachiosaurus'', ''Camarasaurus'', and ''Diplodocus'', and the ornithischia
Ornithischia () is an extinct order of mainly herbivorous dinosaurs characterized by a pelvic structure superficially similar to that of birds. The name ''Ornithischia'', or "bird-hipped", reflects this similarity and is derived from the Greek ...
ns ''Camptosaurus
''Camptosaurus'' ( ) is a genus of plant-eating, beaked ornithischian dinosaurs of the Late Jurassic period of western North America and possibly also Europe. The name means 'flexible lizard' ( Greek (') meaning 'bent' and (') meaning 'li ...
'', ''Dryosaurus
''Dryosaurus'' ( , meaning 'tree lizard', Greek ' () meaning 'tree, oak' and () meaning 'lizard'; the name reflects the forested habitat, not a vague oak-leaf shape of its cheek teeth as is sometimes assumed) is a genus of an ornithopod dinosaur ...
'', ''Othnielia
''Nanosaurus'' ("small or dwarf lizard") is the name given to a genus of neornithischian dinosaur that lived about 155 to 148 million years ago, during the Late Jurassic-age. Its fossils are known from the Morrison Formation of the south-wester ...
'', ''Gargoyleosaurus
''Gargoyleosaurus'' (meaning "gargoyle lizard") is one of the earliest ankylosaurs known from reasonably complete fossil remains. The holotype was discovered in 1995 at the Bone Cabin Quarry West locality, in Albany County, Wyoming in exposures ...
'' and ''Stegosaurus
''Stegosaurus'' (; ) is a genus of herbivorous, four-legged, armored dinosaur from the Late Jurassic, characterized by the distinctive kite-shaped upright plates along their backs and spikes on their tails. Fossils of the genus have been fou ...
''. ''Diplodocus'' is commonly found at the same sites as ''Apatosaurus'', ''Allosaurus'', ''Camarasaurus'', and ''Stegosaurus
''Stegosaurus'' (; ) is a genus of herbivorous, four-legged, armored dinosaur from the Late Jurassic, characterized by the distinctive kite-shaped upright plates along their backs and spikes on their tails. Fossils of the genus have been fou ...
''. ''Allosaurus'' accounted for 70 to 75% of theropod specimens and was at the top trophic level
The trophic level of an organism is the position it occupies in a food web. A food chain is a succession of organisms that eat other organisms and may, in turn, be eaten themselves. The trophic level of an organism is the number of steps it ...
of the Morrison food web
A food web is the natural interconnection of food chains and a graphical representation of what-eats-what in an ecological community. Another name for food web is consumer-resource system. Ecologists can broadly lump all life forms into one o ...
. Many of the dinosaurs of the Morrison Formation are the same genera as those seen in Portuguese rocks of the Lourinha Formation (mainly ''Allosaurus'', ''Ceratosaurus'', ''Torvosaurus'', and ''Stegosaurus
''Stegosaurus'' (; ) is a genus of herbivorous, four-legged, armored dinosaur from the Late Jurassic, characterized by the distinctive kite-shaped upright plates along their backs and spikes on their tails. Fossils of the genus have been fou ...
''), or have a close counterpart (''Brachiosaurus'' and ''Lusotitan
''Lusotitan'' is a genus of herbivorous brachiosaurid sauropod dinosaur from the Late Jurassic Period of Portugal.
Discovery and naming
In 1947 Manuel de Matos, a member of the Geological Survey of Portugal, discovered large sauropod fossils i ...
;'' ''Camptosaurus'' and ''Draconyx
''Draconyx'' (meaning "dragon claw") is a genus of dinosaur from the Late Jurassic. It was an ornithopod which lived in what is now Portugal and was a herbivore. It was found in the Lourinhã Formation in 1991, and described by Octávio Mateus ...
''). Other vertebrates that shared the same paleoenvironment included ray-finned fishes
Actinopterygii (; ), members of which are known as ray-finned fishes, is a class of bony fish. They comprise over 50% of living vertebrate species.
The ray-finned fishes are so called because their fins are webs of skin supported by bony or hor ...
, frog
A frog is any member of a diverse and largely Carnivore, carnivorous group of short-bodied, tailless amphibians composing the order (biology), order Anura (ανοὐρά, literally ''without tail'' in Ancient Greek). The oldest fossil "proto-f ...
s, salamander
Salamanders are a group of amphibians typically characterized by their lizard-like appearance, with slender bodies, blunt snouts, short limbs projecting at right angles to the body, and the presence of a tail in both larvae and adults. All t ...
s, turtle
Turtles are an order of reptiles known as Testudines, characterized by a special shell developed mainly from their ribs. Modern turtles are divided into two major groups, the Pleurodira (side necked turtles) and Cryptodira (hidden necked t ...
s like ''Dorsetochelys
''Dorsetochelys'' is an extinct genus of turtle from the Early Cretaceous of southern England and northwestern Germany.
Taxonomy
The type species, ''Dorsetochelys delairi'', was described on the basis of DORCM G.23, a complete skull from the Ear ...
'', sphenodonts, lizard
Lizards are a widespread group of squamate reptiles, with over 7,000 species, ranging across all continents except Antarctica, as well as most oceanic island chains. The group is paraphyletic since it excludes the snakes and Amphisbaenia altho ...
s, terrestrial and aquatic crocodylomorpha
Crocodylomorpha is a group of pseudosuchian archosaurs that includes the crocodilians and their extinct relatives. They were the only members of Pseudosuchia to survive the end-Triassic extinction.
During Mesozoic and early Cenozoic times, cro ...
ns such as '' Hoplosuchus'', and several species of pterosaur
Pterosaurs (; from Greek ''pteron'' and ''sauros'', meaning "wing lizard") is an extinct clade of flying reptiles in the order, Pterosauria. They existed during most of the Mesozoic: from the Late Triassic to the end of the Cretaceous (228 ...
like ''Harpactognathus
''Harpactognathus'' (meaning "seizing/grasping jaw") is a genus of pterosaur found in the Late Jurassic-age Morrison Formation of Albany County, Wyoming, United States. It is based on NAMAL 101, a partial skull consisting of the snout, recovere ...
'' and ''Mesadactylus
''Mesadactylus'' ('mesa finger') is an extinct genus of pterosaur from the Kimmeridgian-Tithonian-age Upper Jurassic Morrison Formation of Colorado, United States. The genus was named in 1989 by James Jensen and Kevin Padian. The type species ...
''. Shells of bivalve
Bivalvia (), in previous centuries referred to as the Lamellibranchiata and Pelecypoda, is a class (biology), class of marine and freshwater Mollusca, molluscs that have laterally compressed bodies enclosed by a shell consisting of two hing ...
s and aquatic snail
A snail is, in loose terms, a shelled gastropod. The name is most often applied to land snails, terrestrial pulmonate gastropod molluscs. However, the common name ''snail'' is also used for most of the members of the molluscan class ...
s are also common. The flora of the period was green algae
The green algae (singular: green alga) are a group consisting of the Prasinodermophyta and its unnamed sister which contains the Chlorophyta and Charophyta/Streptophyta. The land plants (Embryophytes) have emerged deep in the Charophyte alga as ...
, fungi
A fungus ( : fungi or funguses) is any member of the group of eukaryotic organisms that includes microorganisms such as yeasts and molds, as well as the more familiar mushrooms. These organisms are classified as a kingdom, separately from ...
, moss
Mosses are small, non-vascular flowerless plants in the taxonomic division Bryophyta (, ) '' sensu stricto''. Bryophyta (''sensu lato'', Schimp. 1879) may also refer to the parent group bryophytes, which comprise liverworts, mosses, and hor ...
es, horsetails
''Equisetum'' (; horsetail, snake grass, puzzlegrass) is the only living genus in Equisetaceae, a family of ferns, which reproduce by spores rather than seeds.
''Equisetum'' is a "living fossil", the only living genus of the entire subclass Eq ...
, cycad
Cycads are seed plants that typically have a stout and woody (ligneous) trunk (botany), trunk with a crown (botany), crown of large, hard, stiff, evergreen and (usually) pinnate leaves. The species are dioecious, that is, individual plants o ...
s, ginkgo
''Ginkgo'' is a genus of non-flowering seed plants. The scientific name is also used as the English name. The order to which it belongs, Ginkgoales, first appeared in the Permian, 270 million years ago, and is now the only living genus within ...
es, and several families of conifer
Conifers are a group of conifer cone, cone-bearing Spermatophyte, seed plants, a subset of gymnosperms. Scientifically, they make up the phylum, division Pinophyta (), also known as Coniferophyta () or Coniferae. The division contains a single ...
s. Vegetation varied from river-lining forests of tree fern
The tree ferns are arborescent (tree-like) ferns that grow with a trunk elevating the fronds above ground level, making them trees. Many extant tree ferns are members of the order Cyatheales, to which belong the families Cyatheaceae (scaly tree ...
s and fern
A fern (Polypodiopsida or Polypodiophyta ) is a member of a group of vascular plants (plants with xylem and phloem) that reproduce via spores and have neither seeds nor flowers. The polypodiophytes include all living pteridophytes except t ...
s (gallery forest
A gallery forest is one formed as a corridor along rivers or wetlands, projecting into landscapes that are otherwise only sparsely treed such as savannas, grasslands, or deserts. The gallery forest maintains a more temperate microclimate above th ...
s), to fern savanna
A savanna or savannah is a mixed woodland-grassland (i.e. grassy woodland) ecosystem characterised by the trees being sufficiently widely spaced so that the canopy does not close. The open canopy allows sufficient light to reach the ground to ...
s with occasional trees such as the ''Araucaria
''Araucaria'' (; original pronunciation: .ɾawˈka. ɾja is a genus of evergreen Conifer, coniferous trees in the family Araucariaceae. There are 20 extant taxon, extant species in New Caledonia (where 14 species are endemism, ende ...
''-like conifer ''Brachyphyllum
''Brachyphyllum'' (meaning "short leaf") is a form genus of fossil coniferous plant foliage. Plants of the genus have been variously assigned to several different conifer groups including Araucariaceae and Cheirolepidiaceae. They are known from ...
''.
Cultural significance
''Diplodocus'' has been a famous and much-depicted dinosaur as it has been on display in more places than any other sauropod
Sauropoda (), whose members are known as sauropods (; from '' sauro-'' + '' -pod'', ' lizard-footed'), is a clade of saurischian ('lizard-hipped') dinosaurs. Sauropods had very long necks, long tails, small heads (relative to the rest of their ...
dinosaur.["Diplodocus." In: Dodson, Peter & Britt, Brooks & Carpenter, Kenneth & Forster, Catherine A. & Gillette, David D. & Norell, Mark A. & Olshevsky, George & Parrish, J. Michael & Weishampel, David B. ''The Age of Dinosaurs''. Publications International, LTD. p. 58–59. .]
Much of this has probably been due to its wealth of skeletal remains and former status as the longest dinosaur.
The donation of many mounted skeletal casts of "Dippy
Dippy is a composite ''Diplodocus'' skeleton in Pittsburgh's Carnegie Museum of Natural History, and the holotype of the species ''Diplodocus carnegii''. It is considered the most famous single dinosaur skeleton in the world, due to the numerous ...
" by industrialist Andrew Carnegie to potentates around the world at the beginning of the 20th century[Rea, Tom (2001). ''Bone Wars. The Excavation and Celebrity of Andrew Carnegie's Dinosaur''. Pittsburgh University Press. See particularly pages 1–11 and 198–216.] did much to familiarize it to people worldwide. Casts of ''Diplodocus'' skeletons are still displayed in many museums worldwide, including ''D. carnegii'' in a number of institutions.[
The project, along with its association with 'big science', ]philanthropism
Philanthropy is a form of altruism that consists of "private initiatives, for the Public good (economics), public good, focusing on quality of life". Philanthropy contrasts with business initiatives, which are private initiatives for private goo ...
, and capitalism, drew much public attention in Europe. The German satirical weekly ''Kladderadatsch
''Kladderadatsch'' ( onomatopoeic for "Crash") was a satirical German-language magazine first published in Berlin on 7 May 1848. It appeared weekly or as the ''Kladderadatsch'' put it: "daily, except for weekdays." It was founded by Albert Hofman ...
'' devoted a poem to the dinosaur:
"Le diplodocus" became a generic term for sauropods in French, much as "brontosaur" is in English.
''D. longus'' is displayed the Senckenberg Museum
The Naturmuseum Senckenberg is a museum of natural history, located in Frankfurt am Main. It is the second-largest of its type in Germany. The museum contains a large and diverse collection of birds with 90,000 bird skins, 5,050 egg sets, 17,0 ...
in Frankfurt
Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...
(a skeleton made up of several specimens, donated in 1907 by the American Museum of Natural History
The American Museum of Natural History (abbreviated as AMNH) is a natural history museum on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. In Theodore Roosevelt Park, across the street from Central Park, the museum complex comprises 26 int ...
), Germany. A mounted and more complete skeleton of ''D. longus'' is at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History
The National Museum of Natural History is a natural history museum administered by the Smithsonian Institution, located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., United States. It has free admission and is open 364 days a year. In 2021, with 7. ...
in Washington, DC,[Dinosaur Collections]
. National Museum of Natural History. 2008. while a mounted skeleton of ''D. hallorum'' (formerly ''Seismosaurus''), which may be the same as ''D. longus'', can be found at the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science
The New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science is a natural history and science museum in Albuquerque, New Mexico near Old Town Albuquerque. The Museum was founded in 1986. It operates as a public revenue facility of the New Mexico Departmen ...
.[Age of Giants Hall]
". New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science.
The dance musician Diplo
Thomas Wesley Pentz (born November 10, 1978), known professionally as Diplo, is an American DJ and music producer. He is the co-creator and lead member of the electronic dancehall music project Major Lazer, a member of the supergroup LSD with ...
derived his name from the dinosaur.
A war machine (landship) from WW1 named Boirault machine
The Boirault machine (French: ''Appareil Boirault''), was an early French experimental History of the tank#French development, landship, designed in 1914 and built in early 1915. It has been considered as "another interesting ancestor of the tank ...
was designed in 1915, later deemed impractical and hence given a nickname "''Diplodocus militaris''".Czech article about Boirault machine ("''Diplodocus militaris''")
/ref>
References
External links
''Diplodocus'' in the Dino Directory
Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales, Madrid
– Its Osteology, Taxonomy, and Probable Habits, with a Restoration of the Skeleton. Memoirs of the Carnegie Museum, Volume 1, Number 1, 1901. Full text, Free to read.
including ''D. carnegii'', ''D. longus'', and ''D. hallorum'', from Scott Hartman's Skeletal Drawing website.
{{Taxonbar, from=Q14330
Diplodocids
Dinosaurs of the Morrison Formation
Late Jurassic dinosaurs of North America
Andrew Carnegie
Fossil taxa described in 1878
Taxa named by Othniel Charles Marsh
Paleontology in Colorado
Paleontology in Utah
Paleontology in Montana
Paleontology in Wyoming