Dippy on Tour will not reopen

Dippy on Tour will not reopen as planned this month.

The world-famous dinosaur cast was set to be displayed at Number One Riverside until 12 December, but with Rochdale in Tier 3 restrictions until 16 December, the council has announced that Dippy will not reopen to the public.

The council wrote on social media: “Sorry to announce that in light of current restrictions @DippyOnTour won’t re-open in Rochdale. Dippy received over 120,000 visitors and you gave him a proper northern welcome! We’re proud to have hosted him and thank you for being part of this incredible adventure.”

First displayed in the Natural History Museum in London in 1905, the 21m-long plaster-of-Paris cast of a Diplodocus carnegii skeleton left the museum for the first time in 2017 to embark on a national tour.

Dippy on Tour: A Natural History Adventure, opened in Rochdale, its only North West stop on his national tour, in February this year. The exhibit proved a star attraction, with over 120,000 visitors coming to see the dinosaur cast and the accompanying exhibition at Touchstones Rochdale.
 

Read more: Dippy zooms into Rochdale schoolsPublished: 26 November 2020

Dippy’s stay in Rochdale was originally due to end on 28 June, but was extended to 12 December due to the pandemic. His final stop in Norwich has been moved to summer 2021.

 

 

Living between 156 and 145 million years ago, the diplodocus was first described as a new type of dinosaur in 1878.

When railroad workers unearthed the fossilised bones of a diplodocus in Wyoming, USA, in 1898, newspapers billed the discovery as the 'most colossal animal ever on Earth'.

After hearing the reports, Scottish-born millionaire businessman Andrew Carnegie set out to acquire the bones as a centrepiece for his new museum in Pittsburg.

During the reconstruction of the skeleton at the Carnegie Museum, experts discovered subtle differences from the two other diplodocus species known at the time, Diplodocus longus and Diplodocus lacustris. As a result, the new species was named Diplodocus carnegii in honour of its owner.

King Edward VII saw a sketch of the diplodocus while visiting Carnegie at his Scottish castle and remarked how much he'd like a similar specimen for the animal galleries of the Natural History Museum. Carnegie obliged by commissioning a replica cast of his dinosaur.

Dippy is one of 10 replicas of the original Diplodocus carnegii in museums around the world, including Paris, Berlin, Vienna, and Moscow.