Labels:text | font | paper | screenshot | document OCR: The longest complete dinosaur skeleton found so far belongs to Diplodocus ("double beam"). This massive dinosaur resembled a walking suspension bridge and was longer than a tennis court. Four trunklike limbs, the hindlimbs longer than the forelimbs, supported the body. Diplodocus had a long, snaky neck and a small, horselike head, with peglike teeth and a tiny brain. At the rear end, powerful muscles linking pelvic bones and vertebrae (back bones) helped hold aloft an even longer tail that tapered to a flexible, whiplash tip. Despite this animal's tremendous length, huge cavities in its vertebrae suggest that Diplodocus may have weighed no more than two or three present-day elephants. TREETOP DIET Diplodocus could have browsed on tall tree ferns, ginkgo trees, conifers, and the ferns and vegetation that formed the meadows of its age. Some scientists believe that it reached treetops by rearing up on its back legs, supported by the tripod formed by its hindlimbs and its tail. Long bones inside the tail (the double beams that gave Diplodocus its name) may have prevented blood vessels from being crushed when the tail was pressed against the ground. STONY DIGESTION Peg-shaped teeth in the front of Diplodocus' mouth could have combed tree leaves and fern fronds from their tough stalks. However, this dinosaur did not have any back teeth for chewing. Instead, it used gastroliths (swallowed stones) in its muscular stomach to mash up the leaves. The leafy mush then passed on through the gut, probably to sausage-shaped "fermenting vats" where bacteria completed the process of digestion. Fossil footprints show that, when they had exhausted the food supply in one area, nomadic herds of dinosaurs like Diplodocus migrated to new feeding grounds. WHIPLASH TAIL Traveling in herds helped Diplodocus to defend itself against predators. Massive as Diplodocus was, it did little more than eat vast amounts of leaves and only had claws and a whiplash tail to defend itself. Some older reconstructions and mounted skeletons show Diplodocus dragging its tail, but this is not supported by the fossil evidence. There are no drag marks in the fossil tracks, suggesting that Diplodocus held its tail well off the ground.
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