“Gnatalie,” not yet officially named but given that nickname because of the many gnats flying around the in situ fossil bones, also referred to as the “green dinosaur” because of the greenish color of the bones, is a composite skeleton of a giant (75 feet long) Late Jurassic, diplodocid sauropod dinosaur collected from a bonebed in badlands of Utah. Discovered in 2007, the assembled skeleton is now a major attraction mounted at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. During its early stages of preparations, I — as a volunteer fossil preparator in the “Dino Lab” section of the museum’s Dinosaur Institute — was fortunate to work (albeit in a minor capacity) on some of “Gnatalie’s” remains. Not surprisingly, the museum has issued souvenir items pertaining to this dinosaur and sold in their own museum gift shop, some of which are shown here — including a sculpture made in Canada, a 2-sided plush toy from Nature Planet, Inc., made in China, a mug from China, and a refrigerator magnet .
The dinosaur’s story is told with photos in the September 2024 issue of National Geographic magazine, itself a “Gnatalie” collectible, although not cover-featured. Also in that issue, this composite photo (from 5) and a drawing of the dinosaur’s reconstructed skeleton.
Also sold in the shop is this Safari, Ltd. Diplodocus model because of that dinosaur’s resemblance to “Natalie.” In fact, the mounted skeletal remains of “Natalie” — only postcranial material having been found — sports a cast of a Diplodocus skull.
