Dippy Had a Passport: The 82-Foot Tourist That Crossed the Atlantic 150 Million Years Ago

Diplodocus has been one of the most recognized dinosaurs on Earth since its discovery in 1878. For nearly 150 years, every confirmed bone of the animal came from the same address: the Morrison Formation, western United States. Full stop. That was the rule.

Teruel, Spain, just repealed it.

Sergio Sánchez Fenollosa and his colleagues found the unmistakable anatomical signature of Diplodocus in a set of tail vertebrae dug up in Teruel. The roughly 150-million-year-old remains are the first confirmed Diplodocus fossils ever found outside North America, published in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. The animal stretched an estimated 25 meters (82 feet), on par with its American relatives. The 14 fossilized tail vertebrae and several chevron bones were unearthed at the La Tejería site near El Castellar in Teruel province.

How did an 82-foot American end up in Spain? The leading theory involves timing. As sea levels dropped during the Late Jurassic, stretches of land may have emerged between what is now Newfoundland and the Iberian Peninsula, offering animals a temporary route between continents. A land bridge, essentially. One long enough for something the size of two double-decker buses to walk across.

The bones don't tell researchers exactly when Diplodocus made the crossing or which route it took. The tail also doesn't preserve enough detail to pin down the species. The Spanish animal came out closest to Diplodocus hallorum, but a more complete skeleton from Europe could clarify just how closely the two were related.

The question of how it got there remains open. The bones just confirm that it did.

Read the full story at Discover Magazine, September 15, 2026

Hot Take: A "found nowhere else" claim just needed one bored dinosaur to walk to Europe and prove it wrong.