The only green - boneddinosaurfossil ever discovered is set to take center stagecoach this autumn at the Natural History Museum in Los Angeles . " Gnatalie " ( pronounced Natalie ) will adorn the Museum ’s raw extension and residential district hub , where her verdant cadaver will be on display for all to see .
As well as being the only green - colored dodo specimen on the planet , Gnatalie – all 23 meters ( 75 feet ) of her – is the most consummate sauropod skeletal setting on the US West Coast .
Her unusual colouring is thanks to infilling by the gullible mineral celadonite during thefossilization process . Celadonite shape in volcanic or hydrothermal consideration that normally destroy buried bone , which means it ’s very rarely find in fossils . However , in Gnatalie ’s case , it is thought the mineral entered the fossils around 50 million to 80 million year ago when volcanic action created conditions spicy enough for it to replace a previous mineral – and just like that , this viridescent rarity was born . plough out it really is n’t prosperous being unripe , at least not for dinosaurs ( or mammal ) .
The bones owe their green hue to the mineral celadonite.Image courtesy of Natural History Museums of Los Angeles County
Discovered in the Badlands of Utah in 2007 , she isactuallya composite mount of around 350 fossils from six creature , all belonging to the same species . The specimen were long - neck , long - chase after herbivorous dinosaurs – similar toDiplodocusbut a new species – that roamed the planet 150 million years ago in the late Jurassic Era .
refer earlier this year after a public vote as an ode to the unrelenting bugs that plagued the dig web site during the digging , Gnatalie will be the self-aggrandizing dinosaur at LA ’s Natural History Museum .
" Dinosaurs are a great vehicle for teaching our visitor about the nature of science , " said Dr Luis M. Chiappe of the museum ’s Dinosaur Institute in astatement , " and what better than a green , almost 80 - understructure - long [ 24 - measure ] dinosaur to engage them in the unconscious process of scientific discovery and make them excogitate on the wonders of the world we survive in ! "
The discovery will be documented in a scientific newspaper to be published next year – but until then , buff of Gnatalie can enjoy her emerald - hue bizarreness in all its glory at the Natural History Museum this fall .
And there ’s alwaysEric the opalized plesiosaur , whose remains turned into literal jewel , if you ’re in need of a weird dino bone location in the lag .
