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.
Gillette found eight huge bones of the Diplodocus in northwestern New Mexico in May 1985 and assumed the rest of his conclusing. Thinking that this was a dinosaur unknown to science, Gillette began comparing the dinosaur bones he found to those of other dinosaurs. TAfter 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.