Experts at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County (NHMLAC) are currently putting together one of the most anticipated displays in its history. It’s setting milestones on every front. The first of its species discovered. The largest dinosaur skeleton mounted at the museum. And, perhaps most impressively, the only example in history of a dinosaur specimen found with green bones. You read that right. This autumn you will have your chance to see the world’s first (and maybe only) naturally green dinosaur skeleton. LA really does have everything.
A Paleontological Miracle
Back in 2007, researchers from the NHMLAC’s Dinosaur Institute were excitedly toiling away in a quarry in the middle of Utah’s unforgiving Badlands. It’s poetic that an atmosphere so hostile to life would also provide a hotbed of fossilized dinosaur bones. Over a nearly unfathomable 150 million years ago, this scorched site was a bountiful riverbed, sating the thirsts of countless dinosaurs in the late Jurassic Period. Still, researchers could never have predicted what they’d find hidden beneath the site’s arid sands.
Throughout their careers, NHMLAC researchers have unearthed an army of fossils in varying hues of brown and black. Experts attribute the brown coloration to silica and the black to iron. Yet, researchers in 2007 were amazed to discover fossils in a blotchy olive green. It’s already rare for bones to remain preserved over the span of a hundred million years. But the process that imbued these bones with their olive hue adds another dimension of rarity. We’re basically talking about a paleontological miracle.
How the Dinosaur Skeleton Got Its Green Coloring
Experts credit a mineral called celadonite for giving the unearthed dinosaur fossils their mottled green coloring. Celadonite forms in volcanic or hydrothermal conditions that would normally destroy bone. The celadonite coloring the fossils likely entered into the equation more recently in time during a period of volcanic activity anywhere between 50 million to 80 million years ago.
Rather than outright destroying the bones, the volcanic activity allowed celadonite to infiltrate the bone structure, replacing a mineral destroyed by the process. Therefore, the dinosaur skeleton currently being prepared for display in LA isn’t just the first of its kind to be discovered. It may remain the only of its kind.
A New Species of Sauropod
The species itself is a new discovery as well. Though researchers have yet to name it, they have classified it as closely related to the Diplodocus species of sauropods. More commonly recognized sauropods include the Brachiosaurus and Brontosaurus. Herbivorous sauropods are easily recognized for their overall colossal size and exceedingly long necks and tails. A scientific paper is being prepared for next year that will likely reveal the name of the new species.
When the green dinosaur skeleton goes on display later this year, it will be the largest dinosaur at LA’s Natural History Museum at roughly 75 feet. And though the complete skeleton is actually made up of several fragments collected from different specimens gathered from the same site, it marks the most complete sauropod skeletal mount to be displayed on the West Coast.
Naming the Green Dinosaur Skeleton
NHMLAC opened a vote to the public to decide on a name for its forthcoming green dinosaur skeleton. After some deliberation, the popular vote went to “Gnatalie” – so named for the clouds of gnats that pestered researchers at the Utah dig site. Other names considered included:
- Verdi – taken from the Latin word for “green”
- Olive – due to the olive hues of the fossils
- Esme – shortened from Esmeralda (the Spanish word for “emerald”)
- Sage – a green plant growing in abundance at the NHMLAC
When Can You Meet Gnatalie?
So when can the public expect to meet Gnatalie for themselves? While an exact date has yet to be dropped, the NHMLAC has estimated their green dinosaur skeleton will be unveiled sometime in the fall. It will be the centerpiece of their new NHM Commons wing; an area that will be open to the public without the need for paid admission. In this way, the NHMLAC hopes that any curious guests will find plenty of opportunity to see one of the rarest paleontological finds ever unearthed.
