Dinosaur Dippy goes on display in Norwich Cathedral nave

Dippy is on display in Norwich Cathedral's nave

Dippy the diplodocus has gone on display at Norwich Cathedral in the final leg of a national tour.

The Natural History Museum (NHM) dinosaur is composed of 292 bones and ribs made from plaster of Paris and has taken a week to reassemble.

The 70ft model first went on display at the London museum in 1905 and stayed there until 2017, when it was replaced by a whale.

Dippy can be viewed at the cathedral until October.

It is a cast of the type specimen of Diplodocus carnegii, found in America.

Assembly is a delicate and painstaking task with no room for error

In February the cathedral's dean said it was an "amazing opportunity" to host the dinosaur.

Efforts to put the model together have involved painstaking and delicate work, with no room for error, according to NHM lead technician, Andrew Wahl.

"There's always that worry that you could drop it," he said. "And then that's it, that's Dippy gone."

The aim of Dippy on tour is to inspire people to appreciate nature on their doorstep, the NHM said.

"Iconic, I call Dippy the people's dinosaur, a true rockstar," said Lorraine Cornish of the NHM.

"All of the venues that we have partnered with have put on fantastic events, from field work and nature tours to children's talks."

Dippy the dinosaur was originally supposed to come to Norwich last year but the pandemic postponed his visit

The dinosaur head is assembled as the final piece

The museum said 1.7 million people have visited Dippy since he went on tour three years ago.

Two years ago the cathedral was criticised for installing a helter-skelter in the nave. It hopes Dippy will be less controversial.

"It's giving us the opportunity to really engage with those big questions around our existence, around faith and science," said the Very Reverend Jane Hedges.

"Particularly big issues facing us now around the care of our environment and our responsibility as human beings and how we treat our planet."

Dippy can be viewed at the cathedral until October.