The 150-year-old female is a newly-identified species discovered in 2007.

The Natural History Museum in Los Angeles, the U.S, is showcasing a remarkable new exhibit: the skeleton of a dinosaur with strikingly green bones. Unearthed in Utah's Badlands in 2007, this is the only green-boned dinosaur ever discovered, paleontologists noted in the biology journal Phys.org.

Dating back to the late Jurassic Era, around 150 million years ago, the 23-meter-long herbivore reptile it is more than twice as old as the Tyrannosaurus rex, a carnivore.

The skeleton of Gnatalie. Image: LA Natural History Museum

The unique green color comes from a mineral called celadonite, which infiltrated the bones during volcanic activity 50 to 80 million years ago. Celadonite typically forms under extreme conditions that would usually destroy bones. However, the remains of this dinosaur have survived to our days in order to puzzle researchers.

The dinosaur was named "Gnatalie" [which reads Nataly] after the museum asked for a public vote on five choices that included Verdi; Olive; Esme; and Sage. "Gnatalie" comes from the swarms of gnats that bothered the paleontologists during the excavation.

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While names like Olive, Verdi, Esme, and Sage were considered, a public vote chose "Gnatalie" as the winning name.

Gnatalie is not only unique for her green bones but also because she belongs to a newly identified species of dinosaurs similar to sauropods, the massive herbivores that include brontosaurus and brachiosaurus.

Details of this discovery will be published in a scientific paper next year. A web page dedicated to Gnatalie is available for natural history enthusiasts here.

The museum also published a teaser about the new dino exhibit on YouTube.

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