These "double beams" are also seen in some related dinosaurs.
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. The middle part of the tail had "double beams" (oddly shaped chevron bones on the underside, which gave Diplodocus its name). The tail may have served as a counterbalance for the neck. 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. carnegii showing the double-beamed chevron bones to which the genus name refers, Natural History Museum, Londonĭiplodocus had an extremely long tail, composed of about 80 caudal vertebrae, which are almost double the number some of the earlier sauropods had in their tails (such as Shunosaurus with 43), and far more than contemporaneous macronarians had (such as Camarasaurus with 53). While dinosaurs such as Supersaurus were probably longer, fossil remains of these animals are only fragmentary. hallorum are mainly based, also was found to have had its 13th tail vertebra come from another dinosaur, throwing off size estimates for D. carnegii skeleton at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on which size estimates of D. hallorum weighs 23 metric tons (25 short tons) in body mass. The estimated length was later revised downward to 33–33.5 m (108–110 ft) and later on to 29–32 m (95–105 ft) based on findings that show that Gillette had originally misplaced vertebrae 12–19 as vertebrae 20–27 according to Gregory S.
Some weight estimates of the time ranged as high as 113 metric tons (125 short tons). When first described in 1991, discoverer David Gillette calculated it may have been up to 52 m (171 ft) long, making it the longest known dinosaur (excluding those known from exceedingly poor remains, such as Amphicoelias or Maraapunisaurus). hallorum, known from partial remains, was even larger, and is estimated to have been the size of four elephants. carnegii have tended to be in the 12–14.8-metric-ton (13.2–16.3-short-ton) range. carnegii is currently one of the longest dinosaurs known from a complete skeleton, with a total length of 24–26 meters (79–85 ft). The skeletal structure of these long-necked, long-tailed animals supported by four sturdy legs have been compared with suspension bridges. Their forelimbs were slightly shorter than their hind limbs, resulting in a largely horizontal posture. hallorum (green) compared with a human.Īmong the best-known sauropods, Diplodocus were very large, long-necked, quadrupedal animals, with long, whip-like tails.
Sizes of Diplodocus carnegii (orange) and D. For many years, it was the longest dinosaur known. Its great size may have been a deterrent to the predators Allosaurus and Ceratosaurus: their remains have been found in the same strata, which suggests that they coexisted with Diplodocus.ĭiplodocus is among the most easily identifiable dinosaurs, with its typical sauropod shape, long neck and tail, and four sturdy legs. The Morrison Formation records an environment and time dominated by gigantic sauropod dinosaurs, such as Apatosaurus, Barosaurus, Brachiosaurus, Brontosaurus, and Camarasaurus. It is one of the more common dinosaur fossils found in the middle to upper Morrison Formation, between about 154 and 152 million years ago, during the late Kimmeridgian Age. The genus of dinosaurs lived in what is now mid-western North America, at the end of the Jurassic period. The generic name, coined by Othniel Charles Marsh in 1878, is a neo-Latin term derived from Greek 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. ( Gillette, 1991) (originally Seismosaurus)ĭiplodocus ( / d ɪ ˈ p l ɒ d ə k ə s/, / d aɪ ˈ p l ɒ d ə k ə s/, or / ˌ d ɪ p l oʊ ˈ d oʊ k ə s/ ) is a genus of diplodocid sauropod dinosaurs, whose fossils were first discovered in 1877 by S.
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