Editing Diplodocidae (section)

==Evolution and biogeography==

Diplodocids probably evolved in North America, where most diplodocid fossils are found.<ref name="WhitlockWilsonMantilla2020"/> However, diplodocids have been found on most continents, including South America, Europe, and Africa. Diplodocids and their close relatives, dicraeosaurids, must have diverged from each other by the time the earliest known dicraeosaurid, ''[[Lingwulong]]'', appears in the fossil record.<ref name="Xu2018"/> ''Lingwulong'' was originally thought to be possibly as old as Early Jurassic, but is now considered to date to the late Middle Jurassic.<ref name="Dai2022"/>

Most diplodocids lived during the Jurassic period, but they survived into the Early Cretaceous, at least in Africa and South America. An unnamed diplodocid is known from the [[Kirkwood Formation]] of South Africa.<ref name="McPhee2016"/> ''Leinkupal laticauda'' is from the Bajada Colorada Formation of Argentina,<ref name="Gallina2014"/> and indeterminate diplodocid material is known from the nearby Mulichinco Formation of similar age.<ref name="Gnaedinger2017"/>