Dippy in Coventry

10 Facts You Probably Didn’t Know About Dippy

1. Dippy is a replica Diplodocus skeleton but you’ve been saying it wrong all this time - or have you? There are a number of pronunciations you tend to hear. Firstly, the more bouncy dip-low-DOE-cus and secondly the more rushed dip-LOD-oh-cus. A third possible pronunciation is DIP-low DOCK-us. Well apparently, based on the etymological history of the word, all these pronunciations are correct and make sense. However, it does give you an idea why ‘Dippy’ was picked for short.

2. The first recorded Diplodocus fossils were discovered in 1877 in a quarry in Colorado.

3. Humans are closer in time to Tyrannosaurus rex, than T-Rex was to the Diplodocus.

4. There haven’t been enough Diplodocus specimens found to know if Dippy is male or female. That is why today Dippy is known as ‘they’.

5. Diplodocus had 292 bones. That’s 86 more than humans! And it’s even more if you count all the bones in their head – 356.

6. At one point it was believed a Diplodocus could whip its tail faster than the speed of sound. However this is unlikely and according to a recent study which suggests it could move at over 70 miles an hour. 

7. All dinosaurs laid eggs. To date, no nesting sites have been found for Diplodocus so we don’t know what their nests or eggs were like.

8. Dippy is a composite skeleton. One specimen makes up most of the skeleton, but several others were used to fill in the missing pieces, including the skull.  

9. It takes two people two days to dust Dippy. This is done roughly every two years.

 10. Diplodocus were herbivorous, which means they ate plants. They had 42 narrow teeth which helped them strip leaves from conifer and ginkgo trees. However, these teeth did not have to last a lifetime as they were replaced about every 35 days.