Diplodocus - Kids Dinosaur Facts

More Dinosaur Details

Diplodocus were plant eaters (herbivores) which grazed in large herds together - the same as Triceratops.

They lived about 154 to 150 million years ago - in the late Jurassic period. This was about the same time as the Stegosaurus dinosaur and the Allosaurus.

Diplodocus had very powerful back legs! Its body was balanced by a long heavy tail - often used as a weapon against attackers. Their size would also have been a deterrent to predators.

It is thought to be the longest known dinosaur. The neck could reach over 6m (20ft) and its long tail had 80 vertebrae. It was first thought that the tail dragged along as it walked - but no drag marks have been found beside fossilized footprints.

Its dinosaur classification is Sauropoda.

They had a very small head compared to the size of its body and would have had a very small brain. According to wikipedia, scientists now think that it would have not been able to lift it's head much higher than its body. So a lot of the earlier drawings of this dinosaur with its head at tree level would be wrong.

More questions you may have :

They weighed from 10 to 15 tonnes - as much as a large truck. Although heavy, they were not the heaviest dinosaur. The Brachiosaurus weighed around 30 tonnes!