Move over Jurassic Park! If you love dinosaurs – and let’s face it, who doesn’t – you need to get yourself down to Kelvingrove Park where there is not one but TWO prehistoric visitors.
The Kelvingrove Museum is hosting Dippy, the world-famous Diplodocus who has been inspiring and awing visitors and scientists alike since he made his first appearance at London’s Natural History Museum in 1905. Dippy is 1 of 10 plaster-of-Paris replicas made of the original near-complete skeleton discovered in Wyoming in 1898 during the construction of a new railway line.
Dippy also has a strong connection to Scotland as Dunfermline-born philanthropist Andrew Carnegie was so excited to hear about the discovery of ‘the most colossal animal on Earth’ that he bought the bones to display in his museum in Pittsburgh. It was here experts found differences between Dippy and previously discovered Diplodocus remains and so he became the first described member of a new species, named Diplodocus carnegii in honour of Carnegie.
- Find out more about Dippy’s UK tour
- Ever wondered how you assemble and disassemble a dinosaur skeleton? Very carefully!
Amazingly, Dippy is not the only dinosaur to visit Glasgow this spring. Across the road at Kelvin Hall you’ll find Trix the Tyrannosaurus rex. Glasgow is the last stop on her three year long European tour from the Naturalis Biodiversity Center in Leiden.
Unlike Dippy, Trix is an original skeleton and is one of the most complete T. rex skeletons in the world, along with Sue and Stan. About 75% of her original bones were found (in excellent condition) at a dig in Montana in 2013.
Using x-ray microtomography (a non-invasive technique that can investigate a material’s microstructure in 3D) the bones were aged to show that Trix was over 30 when she died, making her the oldest T. rex ever uncovered. The bones provide a great deal of information about how she lived, what she ate, how she behaved and what she looked like. They also show evidence of disease or trauma, such as bite wounds and infection. Missing elements of the skeleton have been added using 3D-printed replicas of missing limb bones and missing teeth have been replaced with those from other morphologically similar skeletons.
So what are you waiting for?! Go visit Dippy (at Kelvingrove Museum until May 6th) and Trix (at Kelvin Hall April 18th – July 31st)!
Dino Data
| Dippy | Trix | |
| Species | Diplodocus carnegii | Tyrannosaurus rex |
| Height | 4.25m | 4m |
| Body Mass | 15 tonnes (that’s 10 cars!) | 5 tonnes |
| Number of bones | 292 | About 200 |
| Diet | Leaves & Vegetation = Herbivore | Meat (human or otherwise) = Carnivore |
| Length | 21.3m | 12.5m |
| Time period | 145-155 million years old | 66 million years old |
- Deep-dive on dinosaur knowledge: NHM’s Dino Directory – over 300 dinos covered!
- Are you a Dippy or more Trix? Find out