Shanta the diplodocus.
In the Books[]
The diplodocus are large grey or green long-necked dinosaurs who live on the planet Diplox in the Vegetarian Sector of space. They were recently the victims of a famine caused by a freak hailstorm and only recovered when Teggs gave them Dasta's replicator.
Members of the species Diplodocus hallorum are called seismosaurus in the books. They are massive green long-necked dinosaurs who are gritty and tough, and live on Superneck Alpha. They are sauropods, and eat plants. Commander Gruff the seismosaurus is the head of the Astrosaurs Academy.
Commander Gruff the seismosaurus.
A group of diplodocus miners including Shanta, Plod, and Herman landed on Creepus in The Space Ghosts and were spooked by the previous owners of their camp, Spink and his kentrosaurus miners, who had been affected by dispium and were trying to keep Shanta from suffering a similar fate-and warn them about General Loki's presence on the planet. One of Teggs' friends in the Astrosaurs Academy series, Dutch, is also a diplodocus, and so is Governor Bunwinkle. They seem to be one of the more common dinosaur species.
Species[]
An artist's life restoration of a Diplodocus.
Real Diplodocus were quite long North American sauropods, reaching a length of up to 30 metres. It is thought that Seismosaurus is an especially long species of Diplodocus. They lived during the Jurassic period, using their whiplike tails and size to defend themselves from predators such as Allosaurus. One crack from the tail of a Diplodocus could badly hurt or kill a meat-eating dinosaur! It's also believed that Diplodocus could rear up on two legs to fight, allowing it to crush or slash at predators with the toe claws on its feet. Unlike sauropods like Saltasaurus and Brachiosaurus, Diplodocus had adaptations that allowed it to stand up in defense. While the neck seems flexible, in life it would have been stiff and relatively rigid, unable to bend too much.
Diplodocus was one of the diplodocid sauropods, a family known for long necks and small, narrow heads. Apatosaurus and Brontosaurus were also diplodocids, though they weren't immediately recognized as members of the family. There are three species of Diplodocus - Diplodocus longus, the type species, Diplodocus carnegii, and Diplodocus hallorum. D. hallorum was the largest of the three, and once known as the giant sauropod "Seismosaurus". D. carnegii is the species with the largest number of fossils, and many D. longus fossils have turned out to be D. hallorum on a closer study. As a result, Diplodocus longus, while it remains the type species, has become a nomen dubium.
It was once believed that large sauropods like Diplodocus needed to live in water to support their body weight, but this wasn’t true. Despite its large size, Diplodocus had a birdlike respiratory system, more efficient than similar models found in mammals and reptiles, and they had hollow air sacs within their bones like birds do. These tricks helped them and other sauropods reach their enormous size. They used their slender teeth to strip leaves from branches during feeding. Diplodocus was closely related to the more thickset and heavier Apatosaurus, and probably traveled in herds. However, unlike Apatosaurus it fed on plants that were higher up, preventing competition for food.
Its name means "double beam", referring to bones found under its tail.