The latest dinosaur being mounted at the Natural History Museum in Los Angeles is not only a member of a new species—it’s also the only one found on the planet whose bones are green, according to museum officials.
Named “Gnatalie” (pronounced Natalie) for the gnats that swarmed during the excavation, the long-necked, long-tailed herbivorous dinosaur’s fossils got its unique coloration, a dark mottled olive green, from the mineral celadonite during the fossilization process.
While fossils are typically brown from silica or black from iron minerals, green is rare because celadonite forms in volcanic or hydrothermal conditions that typically destroy buried bones. The celadonite entered the fossils when volcanic activity around 50 million to 80 million years ago made it hot enough to replace a previous mineral.
The dinosaur lived 150 million years ago in the late Jurassic Era, making it older than Tyrannosaurus rex—which lived 66 million to 68 million years ago.
Researchers discovered the bones in 2007 in the Badlands of Utah.
“Dinosaurs are a great vehicle for teaching our visitors about the nature of science, and what better than a green, almost 80-foot-long dinosaur to engage them in the process of scientific discovery and make them reflect on the wonders of the world we live in!” Luis M. Chiappe of the museum’s Dinosaur Institute said in a statement about his team’s discovery.
The skull of a 150 million year old dinosaur is displayed at the Natural History Museum’s new welcome center currently under construction on Tuesday, July 2, 2024 in Los Angeles. It’s newest resident is big, green, and 150 million years old, the 75-foot-long green dinosaur named Gnatalie which will be available for public viewing in the fall at the museum. Researches believe Gnatalie (pronounced Natalie) is a member of a new species of sauropod, a long-necked dinosaur that lived 150 million years ago in the late Jurassic Era. © AP Photo/Richard Vogel
Matt Wedel, anatomist and paleontologist at Western University of Health Sciences in Pomona near Los Angeles, said he heard “rumors of a green dinosaur way back when I was in graduate school.”
When he glimpsed the bones while they were still being cleaned, he said they were “not like anything else that I’ve ever seen.”
The dinosaur is similar to a sauropod species called Diplodocus, and the discovery will be published in a scientific paper next year. The sauropod, referring to a family of massive herbivores that includes the Brontosaurus and Brachiosaurus, will be the biggest dinosaur at the museum and can be seen this fall in its new welcome center.
John Whitlock, who teaches at Mount Aloysius College, a private Catholic college in Cresson, Pennsylvania, and researches sauropods, said it was exciting to have such a complete skeleton to help fill in the blanks for specimens that are less complete.
A 150 million year old dinosaur skeleton is displayed at the Natural History Museum’s new welcome center currently under construction on Tuesday, July 2, 2024 in Los Angeles. It’s newest resident is big, green, and 150 million years old, the 75-foot-long green dinosaur named Gnatalie which will be available for public viewing in the fall at the museum. Researches believe Gnatalie (pronounced Natalie) is a member of a new species of sauropod, a long-necked dinosaur that lived 150 million years ago in the late Jurassic Era. © AP Photo/Richard Vogel
Chris Weisbart, associate vice president of exhibitions at the Natural History Museum in Los Angeles talks during an interview at the museum on Tuesday, July 2, 2024. Los Angeles’s newest resident is big, green, and 150 million years old, the 75-foot-long green dinosaur named Gnatalie (pronounced Natalie) which will be available for public viewing in the fall at the museum. Weisbart said “We want it to be named by the people of LA and we want it to express how engaged we are with our communities”. While researchers referred to the fossil as Gnatalie after the swarms of stinging gnats that attacked them during the excavation, Los Angeles residents confirmed the name earlier this year in a popular vote. © AP Photo/Richard Vogel
The mid section of a 150 million year old dinosaur skeleton is displayed at the Natural History Museum’s new welcome center currently under construction on Tuesday, July 2, 2024. Los Angeles’s newest resident is big, green, and 150 million years old, the 75-foot-long green dinosaur named Gnatalie which will be available for public viewing in the fall at the museum. Researches believe Gnatalie (pronounced Natalie) is a member of a new species of sauropod, a long-necked dinosaur that lived 150 million years ago in the late Jurassic Era. © AP Photo/Richard Vogel
Museum employees walk past a 150 million year old dinosaur skeleton on display at the Natural History Museum’s new welcome center currently under construction on Tuesday, July 2, 2024. Los Angeles’s newest resident is big, green, and 150 million years old, the 75-foot-long green dinosaur named Gnatalie (pronounced Natalie) which will be available for public viewing in the fall at the museum. © AP Photo/Richard Vogel
“It’s tremendously huge, it really adds to our ability to understand both taxonomic diversity … but also anatomical diversity,” Whitlock said.
The dinosaur was named “Gnatalie” last month after the museum asked for a public vote on five choices that included Verdi, a derivative of the Latin word for green; Olive, after the small green fruit symbolizing peace, joy, and strength in many cultures; Esme, short for Esmerelda, which is Spanish for Emerald; and Sage, a green and iconic L.A. plant also grown in the Natural History Museum’s Nature Gardens.
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Citation:
Gnatalie is the only green-boned dinosaur found on the planet. She will be on display in LA (2024, July 14)
