Diplodocus Facts for Kids
dih-PLOD-oh-kus · its name means “double beam”
A very long dinosaur with a long neck and a whip-like tail.
- 📏 80 to 92 ft24 to 28 m1 long
- ⚖️ 15 tons14 tonnes2
- 🕰️ 150 million years ago150 million years ago1
- 🍽️ plants
Diplodocus was a giant plant-eater. It had a long neck and an even longer tail. Its tail was thin at the end, like a whip.
Diplodocus walked on four strong legs. Its neck was long and slim, and its head was small. Its teeth were shaped like pegs and sat only at the front of its mouth, so it used them like a rake to pull leaves off plants.
Diplodocus lived in the same Jurassic woods and plains as Stegosaurus, Allosaurus and Brontosaurus. Its name means double beam, from the odd two-pointed bones under its tail. It may have held its long neck out nearly level and swept it from side to side to reach a wide patch of plants without moving its feet. A famous skeleton nicknamed Dippy was copied in plaster, and copies now stand in museums around the world.
Every dinosaur number is scientists’ best guess from bones, so each one says where it came from.
How big was Diplodocus?
Diplodocus in numbers
| Length (nose to tail) | 80 to 92 ft24 to 28 m1low is the average adult: the same page says scientists estimate that the averag |
|---|---|
| Height at the hips | no checked number yet |
| Weight | 15 tons14 tonnes2estimate |
| When it lived | 150 million years ago150 million years ago1about |
| What it ate | ferns, leaves and other low plants |
| Fossils found in | western North America, including Wyoming, Colorado, Utah and Montana |
| What kind | a sauropod: a giant long-necked plant-eater |
Wow!
- Its name means double beam.
- Its tail was thin at the end, like a whip.
- Copies of one famous skeleton, Dippy, stand in museums around the world.
🦴 Diplodocus’s bones
Books about Diplodocus, free at the library
Ask a grown-up to tap the button: it shows where to borrow a book about Diplodocus for free.
Where was the land back then?
The continents were in different places when Diplodocus lived, 150 million years ago. Open Planet Earth, pick Drifting continents, and slide back in time to see where the land was.
Its neighbours in time
Where these numbers come from
- National Park Service, Dinosaur National Monument, checked 30 October 2026.
- National Park Service, checked 30 October 2026.
- Wikidata, Diplodocus (Q14330), checked 30 October 2026.
To read more: the Natural History Museum’s Dino Directory (see also, not copied).