Diplodocus Itsy Bitsies 8cm - Stuffed Toy

Physical Characteristics
Diplodocus was a long-necked, whip-tailed giant, measuring about 90 feet (27 m) long with a 26 foot (8 m) long neck and a 45 foot (14 m) long tail, but its head was less than 2 feet long. It was among the longest land animals ever. Its nostrils were at the top of its head and it had peg-like teeth, but only in the front of the jaws. Its front legs were shorter than its back legs and all had elephant-like, five-toed feet. Diplodocus was more lightly built than the other giant sauropods and may have weighed only about 10-20 tons.

Habitat
The Diplodocus lived in what is now Western North America at the end of the Jurassic Period. Many Diplodocus fossils have been found in the Rocky Mountains of the Western USA - specifically Colorado, Montana, Utah and Wyoming

Behaviour
Diplodocus may have travelled in herds, migrating when the local food supply was depleted.

Breeding
Diplodocus probably hatched from eggs, like other sauropods. Sauropod eggs have been found in a linear pattern and not in nests; presumably the eggs were laid as the animal was walking. It is thought that sauropods did not take care of their eggs

Diet
Diplodocus was an herbivore and will have eaten a tremendous amount of plant material each day to sustain itself. Its teeth were specialized to strip foliage from branches and it swallowed leaves whole, without chewing them, and may have swallowed gastroliths (stones that remained in its stomach) to help digest this tough plant material. Its main food was probably conifers, which were the dominant plant when the large sauropods lived and its long neck would have helped it reach food sources too high for other plant-eating species. They may also have eaten gingkos, seed ferns, cycads, bennettitaleans, ferns, club mosses, and horsetails.

Strange and Interesting Facts
Diplodicus is pronounced: DI-plod-oh-kuss and means Double Beam, referring to the extra bones underneath its backbone, which had bony protrusions running both forwards and backwards (anvil shaped), a "double beam", probably for support and extra mobility of its neck and tail.