Museum Celebrates 100 Years Of Dippy The Dinosaur

One hundred years ago a very special dinosaur went on display at London's Natural History Museum. Museum staff and visitors are celebrating the anniversary this week with all sorts of dinosaur fun.

Imagine meeting this giant as you wander through the park... luckily dinos like this would have lived 150 million years ago, long before our time.

Why not take a look at the display in 3D to get an idea of how big it really is?

The enormous Diplodocus, known as 'Dippy' to its friends, was first revealed to the public on May 12 1905. Its been one of the Museum's best-loved exhibits ever since.

Dippy looks like a real dinosaur skeleton but is actually a cast taken from the bones of three different diplodocus skeletons.

The original fossilized bones were found in the USA. They dated back 150 million years to a time known as the late Jurassic period.

This photo was taken in 1905. Dippy's bones arrived at the Museum in 36 packing cases.

These experts are carefully unpacking the separate parts and connecting them up.

Palaeontologists have learnt and understood more and more about dinosaurs over the last 100 years.

For many years experts thought Diplodocus must have lived in water. They thought their short legs looked too weak to support such huge bodies and that their long necks might have acted like snorkels.

Thinking has changed now though. Palaeontologists reckon Diplodocus were probably very active, roaming vast distances over land to search for food.

Another photo from 1905, this time showing Dippy fully assembled.

Funnily enough, experts still don't know whether Dippy was a male or a female dinosaur.

You can find out more about Diplodocus dinosaurs in the Natural History Museum's online Dino Directory.

The Darwin Centre's Happy Birthday Diplodocus webcasts explain how Dippy ended up in the Museum and the history of the Sauropod family.

Dippy's being carefully cleaned up for its big day in this picture.

If you live near the Museum they have some brand new Diplodocus floor puzzles which you can borrow (to play with there, not take home) from the reception desk in the Life Galleries.

On Saturday May 14 there will be a fantastic ' Diplodocus Animation Day' when you can go along and draw Dippy, then have your drawing animated and published on the Natural History Museum's website. You need to be seven or older for that activity.

Of course, best of all, you can go along and say hello to Dippy in the Museum, any time you like.

Happy Birthday Dippy!