Dinosaur Dippy - a dedication to the famous philanthropist (7 photos)

A sculpture of a dinosaur named after Andrew Carnegie stands outside a museum that also bears his name.





There's a dinosaur living outside the Carnegie Institute and Library in the Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh that even has its own social media page. Dippy has something to say about it, since it's been around for 150 million years or so.



The main entrance to the Carnegie Library in Pittsburgh

Dippy is known as "Dippy the Dinosaur" (officially Diplodocus carnegii). Dippy is a statue of the first dinosaur and the best specimen discovered by a scientific expedition on July 4, 1899. The costs of shipping and assembling the skeleton were covered by the patron of the Andrew Carnegie Institute. Dippy was installed in front of the museum in 1999 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Pittsburgh's patron dinosaur.





Andrew Carnegie

Diplodocus was a vegetarian dinosaur that stripped vegetation from branches and may have even dived underwater to grab aquatic plants. The unusual set of teeth combined with the tiny head suggests that they did not need powerful jaws to chew their food. They preferred to gobble up salads whole and swallowed them almost without chewing.



The Carnegie Diplodocus (Diplodocus Carnegii) in its new home in Pittsburgh

This diplodocus may be made of fiberglass, but the real thing had vertebrae as strong as a suspension bridge, from its long neck to the end of its powerful tail.



The Dippy sculpture was created over the course of nine months based on the original fossil, which is still housed indoors in the museum's dinosaur hall.



In addition to serving as the museum's mascot, Dippy can often be seen sporting a creepy Pittsburgh Steelers towel and the colors of the University of Pittsburgh sports teams. Sometimes, when it's cold outside, the staff will dress him in a giant cozy scarf.