David Gillette

David Gillette is an American paleontologist best known for his discovery of the dinosaur Diplodocus hallorum. At the time of its discovery, it was the longest dinosaur known.^[1]

Diplodocus hallorum

Diplodocus

Gillette found eight huge bones of the Diplodocus in northwestern New Mexico in May 1985 and assumed the rest of his conclusions. Thinking that this was a dinosaur unknown to science, Gillette began comparing the dinosaur bones he found to those of other dinosaurs. After carefully analyzing the results, he presented his assumptions in a press conference at the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science. He gave the new dinosaur the name Seismosaurus halli, or "earth shaker." Seismosaurus was later assumed as a species of Diplodocus, and renamed Diplodocus hallorum.

In 1993, Gillette published his book, Seismosaurus: The Earth Shaker, about the dinosaur he assumed he discovered. It was published by Columbia University Press and illustrated by Mark Hallett. The book was re-printed in paperback in 1999.

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