A rare dinosaur specimen is set to be on display for the first time at a Cincinnati brewery for a special event. The massive skeleton to be displayed is one of just three known skeletons of the Galeamopus to date.
Rare Dinosaur
In 2000, a rancher in Montana found dinosaur bones in his property and reported the discovery to researchers associated with the Cincinnati Museum Center. It took four years to excavate the dinosaur skeleton from its location, and seven more years to prepare it for display.
The dinosaur was 85 percent complete upon excavation, making it an extremely exquisite specimen, not to mention that it is only one of three known skeletons of the Geleamorpus species to date.
"There are only three skeletons of this dinosaur known and this is among the best," said Curator of Vertebrate Paleontology, Glenn Storrs, to a local radio station.
Jurassic Display
It took experts and researchers 18 years to prepare and study the Galeamopus before it will finally be on display. On May 15, the nearly 50-foot-long specimen is going to be on display at the Rhinegeist Brewery for an event called the "Jurassic Geist," which is basically a free event in the brewery's main tap room in which the never-before-seen skeleton will be on display, and people can interact with paleontologists from the Cincinnati Museum Center. Participants may even enter a raffle for dinosaur-related prizes, and get a taste of the brewery's new brew for the event, the Brittlebrain.
The event is in support of the Cincinnati Museum Center's new dinosaur gallery which will open on November of this year. In it, the Geleamorpus will be joined by four other dinosaur specimen in the 7,000-square-foot display.
Galeamopus
The Galeamopus is a sauropod, meaning that it is a type of long-necked dinosaur. It roamed the Earth during the Jurassic period, and likely had an herbivorous diet of ferns, herbs, and other plants. They are massive creatures that look rather similar to the Diplodocus, except that their legs are more massive and they have high, triangular necks close to the head. The species was actually just named in 2015 because researchers previously believed that current specimen, including the one discovered in 1902, to simply be a smaller type of Diplodocus.
Even though it will already be on display, researchers are expected to continue studying the specimen to further understand the species, especially the marks on the dinosaur's tail which seem to indicate that it was possibly attacked by a carnivorous dinosaur.
A 66-foot-long Galeamopus skeleton that was discovered in 1995 by a Swiss team is also on display at the Aathal Museum in Switzerland.
