This specimen is a cast of Diplodocus fossil teeth in matrix. A Diplodocus is a herbivorous dinosaur with an extremely long neck and body from the Late Jurassic (163.5 to 145 million years ago). On average, a Diplodocus measured 30 meters long and weighed around 15 tons. This cast of fossilized teeth were part of a set of 20-30 teeth located only at the front of the dinosaur's upper and lower jaw. These dinosaurs used their peg-like teeth to eat massive amounts of soft aquatic vegetation. Due to continual chomping on vegetation, this dinosaur frequently developed one new tooth about every 35 days to replace an old worn down tooth.
- Catalog Number:
- 53199
- Object/Specimen Description:
- Specimen Count:
- 2
- Preparation Type:
- Cast
- Cabinet:
- 06
- Drawer/Shelf:
- 03
- Upper Level Taxonomy:
- Animalia, Reptilia, Diplodocidae, Diplodocinae
Sauropod dinosaurs were plant-eaters (herbivores) that included the largest land animals that have ever lived. First appearing in the Late Triassic Period (about 210 million years ago), sauropods diversified into many forms during the Jurassic. Still, they maintained a basic body form of with a long neck, a long tail, and a small head. Some sauropods may have browsed like giraffes, using teeth adapted for cutting and stripping plants of their leaves; others may have grazed for low-growing plants which they took whole and chewed. Early studies of sauropods proposed they were aquatic, using the logic that their huge bodies could not be supported on land. Later work revealed that they were probably fully terrestrial, living in a wide variety of land ecosystems. Fossil trackways show that some sauropods traveled in herds composed of animals of different ages. Sauropods often nested together as well, evidenced by clusters of nests with fossil eggs and embryos.
Dinosaurs are land reptiles that include some of the biggest terrestrial life forms ever on Earth. We know dinosaurs from fossilized bones, teeth, footprints, eggs, and occasionally even soft tissues, although complete skeletons are rare. The earliest known dinosaurs are from the late Triassic (about 230 million years ago), when they were still overshadowed by other animals, such as synapsids (related to the ancestors of mammals). By the end of the Triassic, dinosaurs had begun their remarkable diversification, with several major lineages present. The Jurassic and Cretaceous periods saw dinosaurs dominate many land environments, reach enormous sizes, and diversify into thousands of species (including the first birds). Paleontologists have named more than 1200 species of dinosaurs, and that’s probably just a fraction of all the dinosaur species that existed. Most dinosaurs went extinct abruptly 66 million years ago (end of the Cretaceous), along with many other species. A period of severe environmental stress, punctuated by an asteroid impact, was likely responsible for this mass extinction.