Dino in the desert

(Report in The Gulf Today, Mar.11)

DUBAI: When someone says, “there is a dinosaur in the desert,” it is better not to consider it a joke anymore. A 155 million-year-old dinosaur exhibit has found its new home in The Dubai Mall and is now open for free viewing by the public.
With over 90 per cent original fossil’s bones, the dinosaur is as good as real. According to experts, most dinosaurs are like 20 to 30 per cent real.
Featuring a long tail sweeping behind, and an equally slender long neck rising eerily high as if bracing for battle, the prehistoric dinosaur stands at an impressive 24.4 metres long and 7.6 metres high.
Interestingly, its tail bones were injured during its lifetime, presumably due to predator’s bite or from trauma resulting from an exerted tail force during a battle. All bones unearthed were complete and in superb condition, which helped paleontologists address several queries that were left unanswered.
Emaar has unveiled this latest attraction, a colossal display of the Late Jurassic Period dinosaur, Diplodocus longus, at the mall’s Grand Atrium.
The organisers had kept the exhibit details a secret until Monday evening, leaving everyone to guess on what the “never-before-seen exhibit” would be, until Mohammed Alabbar, Chairman of Emaar, broke the suspense at the event.
To a specific question from The Gulf Today on “why a dinosaur!” Alabbar said the creature mesmerizes people of all age groups. “Visitors to the mall will be excited to see this fascinating exhibit.”
The exhibit was assembled by an expert team of paleontologists. A team of staff is on-site to provide visitors with interesting insights into the displayed dinosaur, the discovery of the fossil and the labourious process that went into reconstructing it to its present form.
This skeleton characteristic is unique in the history of paleontology, given that the most original Diplodocus longus skeleton finding, prior to this, had only 30 per cent of original bones from the overall found structure.
Natalie Bogdanova, Senior Director, Business Development & Operations, Emaar Malls Group, said: “The largest creatures to walk on earth, dinosaurs have been popularised through novels and films. Now, for the first time in Dubai, visitors to the mall can witness the magnificence of a life-size dinosaur exhibit, which also has the distinction of being the only one of its kind in the world.”
Sourced through Khalid Seddiq, Founder of Etihad Modern Art Gallery in Abu Dhabi, and previously only displayed at the Houston Museum of Natural Science, the dinosaur is the first fossil bone mounted in an upright position. Discovered in 2008 at the Dana Quarry, near the quaint town of Ten Sleep in north central Wyoming, the specimen represents an adult that belongs to the family of Diplodocidae, and was found in the sleeping position.