Crossword clues for diplodocus
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
1884, coined in Modern Latin in 1878 by U.S. paleontologist Othniel Charles Marsh (1831-1899) from Greek diploos "double" (see diploid) + dokos "a beam." So called for the peculiar structure of the tail bones.
Wiktionary
n. Any of several herbivorous sauropod dinosaurs, of the genus ''Diplodocus'', known as fossils from the late Jurassic in North America.
WordNet
n. huge quadrupedal herbivore with long neck and tail; of late Jurassic in western North America
Wikipedia
Diplodocus (, , or ) is an extinct genus of diplodocid sauropod dinosaurs whose fossils were first discovered in 1877 by S. W. Williston. The generic name, coined by Othniel Charles Marsh in 1878, is a neo-Latin term derived from Greek διπλός (diplos) "double" and δοκός (dokos) "beam", in reference to its double-beamed chevron bones located in the underside of the tail. Chevron bones of this particular form were initially believed to be unique to Diplodocus; however, since then they have been discovered in other members of the diplodocid family as well as in nondiplodocid sauropods, such as Mamenchisaurus. It is now common scientific opinion that Seismosaurus hallorum is a species of Diplodocus.
This genus of dinosaurs lived in what is now western North America at the end of the Jurassic period. Diplodocus is one of the more common dinosaur fossils found in the middle to upper Morrison Formation, between about 154 and 152 million years ago, during the late Kimmeridgian age. The Morrison Formation records an environment and time dominated by gigantic sauropod dinosaurs, such as Apatosaurus, Barosaurus, Brachiosaurus, Brontosaurus, and Camarasaurus.
Diplodocus is among the most easily identifiable dinosaurs, with its typical sauropod shape, long neck and tail, and four sturdy legs. For many years, it was the longest dinosaur known. Its great size may have been a deterrent to the predators Allosaurus and Ceratosaurus: their remains have been found in the same strata, which suggests that they coexisted with Diplodocus.
Usage examples of "diplodocus".
It was a diplodocus, a form of dinosaur, weighing twenty tons and boasting a neck and head that were more than thirty feet long.
The diplodocus was a vegetarian, but it was easily trained to pick up smaller creatures and place them where demanded.
The diplodocus should have very carefully lain Stan right down through a gap in the central hothouse.
Startled by the vivid-green light, the almost brainless diplodocus had tossed its head the other way and let its human burden fling away.
So far, he has managed to elude my diplodocus, but I have another creature that will surely capture him.
Carrying The Shadow almost to the ground outside the castle, the diplodocus hesitated.
Animals bulkier than the Diplodocus or more forbidding than tyrannosaurus may have roamed the Earth in the thousands, and we may never know it.
For, after walking across a supercontinent, the diplodocus herd had nowhere to go.
Indeed, diplodocus left underwater footprints so wide and so deep that fish used them as nests.
He was not large enough to tackle a huge animal like diplodocus if she was in her own element, but he had found that usually when the large reptiles came into the stream, there was something wrong with them, and twice he had been able to hack one down.
As he did so, diplodocus stepped forward, and slowly swung her tail in a mighty arc, hitting him with such force that he was thrown off his feet and sent crashing into the brush.
She had, like all members of the diplodocus family, an extremely small brain, barely large enough to send signals to the various remote parts of her body.
Here, back eddies had formed a swamp, and as she approached this protected area diplodocus became aware of a sense of security.
Without this advanced system of cable and pulley, diplodocus could have activated neither her neck nor her tail, and she could not have survived.
When she reached there she sniffed the air in all directions, and one smell seemed familiar, for she turned purposefully toward fern trees at the far end of the swamp and from them appeared the male diplodocus for which she had been searching.