Sauropod dinosaur (composite)

Giant sauropod dinosaurs evolved to be much larger than the largest animals alive today. Scientists study their immense fossil skeletons to learn how they ate, moved, and grew.

Diplodocus sp.

It took four people working full-time almost two years to assemble our original Diplodocus specimen, which first went on display in 1931. Charles Gilmore collected the fossil material from Dinosaur National Monument. The missing elements were supplemented with casts from the Carnegie Museum.

BIG BODIES POSE BIG CHALLENGES
No other land animals have ever grown as big as long-necked sauropod dinosaurs. With these super sizes came monumental challenges.

Diplodocus, Camarasaurus, and their relatives had a host of strategies that helped them move, eat, and grow at a massive scale.
• Diplodocus used the peg-like teeth at the front of its mouth to strip leaves off of branches.
• Diplodocus had fewer, long vertebrae, which made the neck stiffer, more like a fishing rod. It may have held its neck out horizontally to clear patches of low vegetation.

In the middle of Diplodocus’s long tail, excess bone growth fused together several of the vertebrae. Some ligaments have even turned to bone. The cause? Perhaps infection from a disease or an injury—always a problem in a world without medicine.