Dippy

National Museum Cardiff

Until Sun 26 Jan

Dippy, the emblematic diplodocus dinosaur skeleton, is heading out on a tour of Britain. The specimen left the Natural History Museum in London to go on a public display tour across the UK, first stopping at the Dorset County Museum in early 2018. The National Museum Cardiff will now welcome the dinosaur skeleton until late January.

Arriving at the Natural History Museum in 1905, the UK’s most famous dinosaur has been a recognisable symbol at the main visitors’ entrance of London’s National History Museum since moving to the central hall in 1979. The dinosaur is a replica, cast from 292 original fossil bones discovered in the US in 1898. The skeleton is 21.3 metres long, 4.3 metres wide and 4.25 metres high. With its long giraffe-like neck it is one of the largest dinosaurs to have lived during the late Jurassic Period, approximately 155 million years ago.

Dippy’s old spot at the Natural History Museum has been taken up by Hope – a giant skeleton of a blue whale, so named to indicate a “symbol of humanity’s power to shape a sustainable future”. The dinosaur will eventually go back to his home, but in the meantime there’s a superb opportunity to enjoy his presence here in the Welsh capital.

words CHARALAMBOS STYLIANOU

Admission: free. Info: 029 2057 3500 / museum.wales