Mike Taylor,
Matt Lamanna2,
Ilja Nieuwland3,
Amy Henrici2,
Linsly Church2,
Steve Sroka4,
and
Ken Carpenter5
1University of Bristol
2Carnegie Museum of Natural History
3Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences
4Utah Field House of Natural History
5University of Colorado Museum
The sauropod dinosaur Diplodocus is best known from the
iconic Carnegie specimen, casts of which were sent around the
world in the early 1900s. The original skeleton was mounted in
1907, but its composition was complex: it contained real bone
from four individuals, with casts and sculptures from six
further specimens — some of which were from distantly related
camarsaurids. Cast/sculpted material includes the skull,
forelimbs and forefeet. Published estimates of the skeleton's
length have varied wildly: new measurements establish it at
26.1m. In 1957, a last cast was made, in concrete, by the Utah
Field House in Vernal, Utah. It stood outside the museum for
three decades. The molds, weighing three tons, were shipped to
Rocky Rount, North Carolina, with the intention of casting
another outdoor Diplodocus, but work eventually ground to
a halt. The molds were probably lost or destroyed around
1965. However, in 1989, new moulds were made from the concrete
cast. Second-generation casts have been made from these, and now
inhabit Japan, Canada and several locations in Florida, as well
as Vernal. Elements cast from these new moulds have also been
incorporated into other mounts, such as the iconic
rearing Barosaurus in the AMNH atrium.