DubaiDino
A real 155-million-year-old Diplodocus skeleton, 24 metres long, standing in the middle of the mall.
DubaiDino is not a model or a cast — it is a genuine fossil skeleton of a Diplodocus longus, a long-necked, whip-tailed sauropod that lived in the late Jurassic period, roughly 155 million years ago. It measures about 24.4 metres from nose to tail-tip and stands around 7.6 metres tall, and in life it would have weighed about as much as five elephants. Unveiled in 2014, it has been a fixture of the mall ever since — free to view, and endlessly photographed.
What makes it genuinely rare is its completeness. The remains were discovered in a sleeping position in 2008 at the Dana Quarry in Wyoming, USA, and around 90 per cent of the bones are original and intact — extraordinary for this species, where a typical mounted skeleton contains only about 30 per cent real bone. It is described as the first sauropod skeleton of actual fossil bone mounted in an upright standing pose. Even the double-beamed tail bones that give the Diplodocus its name survive, some broken in ways that hint at a tail fight or a predator's bite 155 million years ago. It has since moved within the mall — long displayed in the Grand Atrium, and more recently relocated near the ice rink.
Exhibo editorial
Worth pausing on for what it actually is: a real animal that walked the earth before the Atlantic Ocean had finished opening, standing casually between shopfronts. Read the on-site panels for the Wyoming excavation story and look for the tail damage. It's free, and its position has changed over the years — if it's not in the Grand Atrium, check near the Dubai Ice Rink. (In 2019 it was even briefly put up for auction, but it stayed.)
How to find it
Inside The Dubai Mall. Historically the centrepiece of the Grand Atrium; more recently relocated near the Dubai Ice Rink — follow mall signage or ask, as it has moved. Free-standing and hard to miss given the scale.
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