There’s been a newly discovered species of dinosaur. It has green bones.
The long-necked plant-eating dinosaur was named “Gnatalie” (pronounced Natalie) in honor of the gnats and flies that were abundant during its excavation.
Its appearance is reminiscent of that of the sauropod Diplodocus.
Herbivores, or dinosaurs that primarily consumed plant matter, include sauropods. These creatures had lengthy necks, lengthy tails, little heads, and four robust legs like tree trunks.
Another group of sauropod dinosaurs includes the Brachiosaurus and the Brontosaurus.
With a lifespan of 150 million years, Gnatalie predates Tyrannosaurus rex by 66–68 million years.
According to museum authorities, the most recent dinosaur mount at the Los Angeles Natural History Museum is not only from a new species but also the sole known dinosaur on Earth with green bones. (The bones weren’t green inside the living dinosaur.)
Its distinctive coloring, a rich mottled olive green, came from the mineral celadonite during fossilization.
Celadonite occurs in volcanic or hydrothermal circumstances, which usually destroy buried bones, making green fossils extremely rare. Silica and iron minerals are the usual suspects when it comes to brown and black fossils, respectively. When celadonite was heated enough during volcanic activity 50–80 million years ago, it replaced another mineral in the fossil record.
The prehistoric beast lived during the late Jurassic Period.
Western University of Health Sciences at Pomona, near Los Angeles, employs anatomist and paleontologist Matt Wedel, who claims to have heard rumors of a green dinosaur way back when he was in graduate school.
Upon catching a glimpse of the bones while they were being cleaned, he said it was unlike anything he had ever seen.
The museum’s largest prehistoric animal, a sauropod—a group of enormous herbivores that includes the Brachiosaurus and Brontosaurus—will be on display this fall in the brand-new visitor center.
The dinosaur was given the name “Gnatalie” last month after the Natural History Museum held a public vote on five potential names. The other two were Verdi and Olive, both derived from the Latin word for green; Esme, short for Esmeralda, the Spanish word for Emerald; and Sage, a green and iconic Los Angeles plant that is also grown in the museum’s Nature Gardens.
