Diplodocus
/dɪˈplɒdəkəs/noun
A very long, slender sauropod dinosaur with a whip-like tail, known from the American West.
The Greek roots
Literally: “double beam”
The story of the word
Marsh named it in 1878 for the double-beamed bones under the tail, which carry a projection at each end and let the animal drag its tail without pinching the blood vessels. The name describes a detail almost nobody looks at on a mount that runs 25 metres. Andrew Carnegie had plaster casts of his specimen made and shipped to European heads of state, so Diplodocus was the first dinosaur most of the world ever stood next to, and the London cast has been Dippy ever since.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → scientific coinage → English
- First recorded
- 1878
Same family
In a sentence
The Diplodocus skeleton ran the whole length of the entrance hall.
Diplodocus could probably crack its tail like a whip, though not without risking the bones.