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My Dinosaur Dig
For years, NHM researchers (and sometimes, office folk like myself) have made their way to an exclusive Utah dig site to unearth more and more dinosaur bones.
On View in NHM Commons in Fall 2024
NHM Commons—the Museum’s new wing and community hub—will welcome visitors this Fall with, among other wonders, the newest and biggest fossil Angeleno: Gnatalie. Gnatalie (pronounced “nat-ah-lee”), affectionately nicknamed for the stinging gnats that pestered its excavators during the digs, is the most complete sauropod skeletal mount on the West Coast—and the only green-colored fossil specimen on the planet. Gnatalie’s unusual bone coloring is due to infilling by the green mineral celadonite during the fossilization process.
The more than 75 feet of Gnatalie, the long-necked dinosaur, will stretch the imaginations of visitors from Los Angeles and around the world. For the first time, it will bring our storied fossils to the public with or without a ticket. The biggest specimen on display at the Museum will also be free to view for anyone.
Gnatalie’s journey to NHM is almost as long as its neck. The quarry was discovered in 2007 in the Badlands of Utah by researchers from NHMLAC’s Dinosaur Institute, led by Dr. Luis Chiappe, NHMLAC Senior Vice President for Research and Collections and the Gretchen Augustyn, Director of the Dinosaur Institute.
"Dinosaurs are a great vehicle for teaching our visitors about the nature of science," said Dr. Luis M. Chiappe, "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!"
Gnatalie is a composite mount of multiple specimens, all belonging to a species of Diplodocus-like long-necked dinosaur (sauropods). Angelenos voted to make Gnatalie it's official name in June 2024.
The Crew
It takes a community to excavate a dinosaur. Meet a few who joing the dig.
Wonder is in Our Bones
The fossils that make up Gnatalie were buried in a late-Jurassic Period riverbed 150 million years ago, along with several other dinosaurs. The preservation of any bones for more than a hundred million years is incredibly rare, but Gnatalie is more extraordinary than most.
Volcanic activity around 80 to 50 million years ago made it hot enough for a new mineral to replace an earlier mineral with celadonite. This bone infilling by the green mineral during this secondary fossilization process gave Gnatalie’s skeleton an unusual green color. It will be the first green dinosaur skeleton to be mounted for display worldwide.
Photo by Stephanie Abramowicz
Green bones jut out from the landscape at the Utah dig site.
Photo by Stephanie Abramowicz
Jacketed in plaster for safe transport to the Museum, the fossils were prepared for display at NHM’s Dino Lab. These vertebrae were too distorted to be a part of the dinosaur’s articulated skeleton but will be on display at eye level for a closer look.
Photo by Stephanie Abramowicz
Fully prepared, fossil specimens like this humerus reveal a rich and varied green hue from the celadonite remineralization.
