Paleontologist discusses preparing potential new dinosaur species for display

If the prospect of seeing a possible new species of dinosaur with your own eyes intrigues you, a trip to the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County (NHM) on November 17 might be in order.

At that time, the display of the dinosaur Gnatali, believed to belong to an undiscovered species of long-necked herbivorous dinosaur, began. The dinosaur was discovered in Utah in 2007 and is a composite of multiple fossil specimens. The effort was led by paleontologist Louis M. Chiappe, head of the Department of Research and Collections at the National Museum of Natural History.

Gnatley will also be the only green dinosaur on display in the world, because her bones absorb minerals where the fossils are found. Visitors will be able to see Gnatley for free at the NHM Commons, the museum’s new wing and community center.

ABC News’ JoJo Chang spoke with paleontologist Nate Smith about how Gennatale was discovered, the journey of piecing together the 150-million-year-old giant, and recent controversies in the world of dinosaur fossils.

ABC News: So what’s this 75-foot-long, green, older-than-a-T-rex creature? Well, meet Gnatali, which is believed to be an entirely new species of dinosaur. Scientists have spent the past decade reconstructing this 150-million-year-old behemoth. National Geographic captured this 150-million-year-old behemoth on camera. The entire process is documented..

Chiappe: Well, this is a 150-million-year-old dinosaur, right? So I guess you wouldn’t expect it to be in perfect condition. And it’s not. If you look at some of the tail vertebrae here, you’ll see that some of the spines are a little bit twisted. They’re a little bit broken, a little bit misshapen.

ABC NEWS: Oh, that’s amazing. And now I’m joined by Dr. Nate Smith. He’s the director of the Dinosaur Institute at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles, where Jannatali is located. Coming soonDr. Smith, thanks for joining us.

Smith: Thanks for having me.

ABC NEWS: I love that you’re living the dream because every kid dreams of being a paleontologist. You’re here studying dinosaurs. But let’s start with the color. Why are they green?

Smith: Yes, the color comes from several minerals, the most common of which are green. What makes Gennatali green is a mineral called celadonite, which was concentrated after it was originally fossilized. This mineral replaced some of the minerals that were already there.

ABC NEWS: And it was found in the Badlands, right, in Utah?

Smith: Yeah. So, in the southeast corner of Utah, near a little town called Bluff, which is a really beautiful, scenic part of the United States.

ABC NEWS: This is like breaking news in the dinosaur world. You’re describing this as a completely new species. Tell us more about that.

Smith: Right. So some of our researchers are working on that now. And that takes a while, when you’re going to create a new species and name it. But nothing seems to fit the large, long-necked dinosaurs that we’ve previously described from this area. And we can call it some sort of intermediate dinosaur between two other species. And that’s what makes the discovery even more exciting.

ABC News: Take us through the excavation process leading up to the creation of this exhibit.

Smith: Yeah, it’s a huge undertaking, as you can imagine. And in some ways, the most fun part of it is the easiest part — you know, finding those bones and starting to extract them. But we give a lot of credit to our technicians and our staff here at the Dinosaur Institute and the National Museum of Natural History, because it takes hundreds and thousands of hours to extract these bones from the surrounding rock. And that’s really the limiting factor for us in bringing these giants back to life.

ABC NEWS: And I imagine you wearing your Indiana Jones hat there, digging. And I know that Janatley is coming out this fall. And the people voted on her name, and it’s Janatley for a reason.

Smith: That’s right. It’s Gentile with a G. That’s a reference to the early days of working at this quarry, when the field crew was constantly harassed by flying mosquitoes and biting flies.

ABC NEWS: Once on display, what will visitors to your esteemed museum do when they see the new exhibit?

Smith: Well, Gnatley is very much a community dinosaur, right? It was excavated by a community of people over a dozen years, including students, volunteers, and researchers from all over the world. It’s on Bureau of Land Management land, so it belongs to the community. And it’s going to be part of a new exhibit at the Museum of Natural History’s new Community Center. So everyone will be able to come and see Gnatley for free and learn the story of what we basically call “from the ground up”—so everything that went into finding this giant dinosaur, excavating it, preparing it, studying it, and finally putting it on display.

ABC NEWS: There’s another dinosaur fossil that won’t be on public display because Apex, the largest stegosaur ever found, was recently unearthed. Sold to a private collector for nearly $45 millionSo, how do you feel about these rare specimens remaining out of public view and out of reach of researchers?

Smith: It’s a big challenge and there’s a lot of debate and discussion around it. One of the things that a lot of us in the paleontology community are hoping for is that the exhibitor who bought the Apex has a long history of working with natural history museums and exhibiting these specimens and doing a lot of educational work in paleontology and museums. So our hope is that the Apex is not lost forever to the public and researchers.

ABC NEWS: And of course, we all hope that everyone will tune in to watch Gnatalie. Thank you so much, Dr. Smith, for joining us.

Smith: Thank you for your time. We look forward to welcoming everyone here in the fall.

ABC NEWS: We know that Genatelli will make her public debut at the Natural History Museum in Los Angeles in November. Thanks again.

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Meet Gennatali: Paleontologist Discusses Preparing Potential New Dinosaur Species for Display Originally appeared on abcnews.go.com