Diplodocus, the "double-beam," is 
one of the most famous dinosaurs in
the world. This 24-meter-long, four-
meter-tall dinosaur can be found in
dozens of museums worldwide, making
"Dippy" recognizeable everywhere.
Its absurdly long tail is perhaps
its most iconic feature: it tapers 
to a flexible "whip-like" end, which 
some enthusiasts speculate could 
have been used as a real whip
against predators. This tail also
functioned as a counterbalance to 
the massive, heavy neck that
stretched from the front of its 
body. While some sauropods like 
Brachiosaurus had longer arms than 
legs, giving them more vertical post-
ures, Diplodocus's arms were shorter, 
giving it a horizontal posture.

This hefty herbivore browsed the 
Jurassic foliage of semi-arid coasts
in what is now the central United
States. Diplodocus lived alongside
several other sauropods, including
Apatosaurus and Camarasaurus, so the
landscape must have been constantly
altered wherever these hungry diners
stopped to enjoy the buffet. Based
on the shape of their teeth, paleon-
tologists can tell that each species
of sauropod ate a different kind of 
plant in order to avoid competition
with each other. Many predators
(such as Allosaurus, Ceratosaurus, 
and Torvosaurus) also shared the 
same habitat with these sauropods,
and would have had to eat different
prey to avoid competition as well.