Dinosaur delight

SIR – Your picture of Dippy the Diplodocus (report, December 16) brought back happy memories of the awe on my children’s faces when they first saw him.

Grown up, they still count the Natural History Museum their favourite, but the blue whale leaves them unmoved. Nuala Rosher

Sittingbourne, Kent

SIR – When Dippy was installed in the Natural History Museum, his tail was mistakenly laid out along the floor. Visitors would often steal the last vertebra, which was regularly replaced in the evening by staff.

Later it was realised Dippy walked with his tail aloft and it was raised.

I wonder if the museum still has a collection of spare vertebra casts. Linda Major

London SW15