# Diplodocus carnegii

> A very long, slender sauropod from the Late Jurassic Morrison Formation of Wyoming, with a whip-like tail. Its skeleton, "Dippy", was cast and sent to museums around the world, making it one of the most seen dinosaurs anywhere.

- Classification: Dinosauria (clade) > Saurischia (clade) > Sauropodomorpha (clade) > Sauropoda (clade) > Diplodocoidea (superfamily) > Diplodocidae (family) > Diplodocinae (subfamily) > Diplodocus (genus) > Diplodocus carnegii (species)
- Length: 24–26 m
- Hip height: 3–3.4 m
- Mass: 12–14.8 t
- Age: 154.8–143.1 million years ago (Late Jurassic)
- Fossils found in: Morrison Formation (Colorado); United States
- Diet: herbivore
- Described: John Bell Hatcher, 1901

Canonical page: https://dinodex.club/dinosaurs/diplodocus-carnegii
Last updated: 2026-09-27

## Overview

Diplodocus carnegii lived in western North America in the Late Jurassic. John Bell Hatcher named it in 1901 from a skeleton (CM 84) dug up at Sheep Creek, Wyoming, by a Carnegie Museum crew, and named it after the museum's patron, Andrew Carnegie. Carnegie gave casts of the mounted skeleton, nicknamed "Dippy", to museums in Europe and Latin America.

Diplodocus was long and relatively light for a sauropod, with a horizontal neck, peg-like teeth at the front of the jaws and a tail of about 80 vertebrae ending in a thin whip. The genus is named for the double-beamed chevron bones under its tail.

The first species, D. longus (Marsh 1878), is based on poor material, and a proposal to make D. carnegii the type species was rejected by the ICZN in 2018. Whether the tail could crack like a bullwhip at supersonic speed is debated: a 1997 model said yes, a 2022 model found the tip reached only about 30 m/s.

## Name meaning

From Greek diploos ("double") and dokos ("beam"), for the double chevron bones under the tail (Marsh 1878); carnegii honours Andrew Carnegie (Hatcher 1901).

## Sources

1. (2026). Paleobiology Database: Diplodocus occurrences. The Paleobiology Database (paleobiodb.org), data service 1.2, accessed 2026-09-23. https://paleobiodb.org/data1.2/occs/list.txt?base_name=Diplodocus&show=coords,paleoloc,strat,loc,ref&pgm=gplates
2. (2026). Wikipedia: Diplodocus. Wikipedia (English), accessed 2026-09-23. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diplodocus
3. Conti, S., Tschopp, E., Mateus, O., Zanoni, A., Masarati, P. & Sala, G. (2022). Multibody analysis and soft tissue strength refute supersonic dinosaur tail. Scientific Reports 12. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-21633-2
4. Hatcher, J. B. (1901). Diplodocus (Marsh): its osteology, taxonomy, and probable habits, with a restoration of the skeleton. Memoirs of the Carnegie Museum 1: 1-63. https://doi.org/10.5962/p.234818
5. International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature (2018). Opinion 2425 (Case 3700) – Diplodocus Marsh, 1878 (Dinosauria, Sauropoda): Diplodocus longus Marsh, 1878 maintained as the type species. Bulletin of Zoological Nomenclature 75. https://www.biotaxa.org/bzn/article/view/44176
6. Marsh, O. C. (1878). Principal characters of American Jurassic dinosaurs. Part I. American Journal of Science, series 3, 16: 411-416.
7. Myhrvold, N. P. & Currie, P. J. (1997). Supersonic sauropods? Tail dynamics in the diplodocids. Paleobiology 23: 393-409. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0094837300019801
8. Paul, G. S. (2016). The Princeton Field Guide to Dinosaurs (2nd edition). Princeton University Press.
9. Tschopp, E., Mateus, O. & Benson, R. B. J. (2015). A specimen-level phylogenetic analysis and taxonomic revision of Diplodocidae (Dinosauria, Sauropoda). PeerJ 3: e857. https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.857

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Cite as: "Diplodocus carnegii". DinoDex. https://dinodex.club/dinosaurs/diplodocus-carnegii (updated 2026-09-27).