Montana Dueling Dinosaurs Going to Auction

Many paleontologists agree that two fossilized dinosaur skeletons found in the Hell Creek formation in Montana might be a major discovery.

The fossils apparently show two dinosaurs locked together in mortal combat in a Cretaceous-era grave, an example of fighting that could provide a rare window into dinosaur behavior.

Perhaps more important, each of the skeletons may be a new kind of dinosaur — a Nanotyrannus lancensis, a type of pygmy T. rex, and a Chasmosaurine ceratopsian, a close relation of the Triceratops.

But scientists may never know for sure. Going against the hopes of many paleontologists, these two nearly complete skeletons, found by commercial prospectors on a private ranch, are not going directly to a museum for further study. Instead, billed as the “Montana dueling dinosaurs,” they will be auctioned in November by Bonhams in New York, for a projected price of $7 million to $9 million, which would be one of the highest prices ever paid for dinosaur fossils.

“This lines their pockets but hurts science,” Thomas Carr, the senior scientific adviser at the Dinosaur Discovery Museum and director of the Carthage Institute of Paleontology in Wisconsin, said of the sellers, who include the husband-and-wife owners of the ranch and the prospectors, one of whom calls himself the Dino Cowboy.

A museum could still buy the fossils; many were offered them, at an even higher price, in the long, winding road to auction. Or a private buyer could make them available to scientists. It’s the lack of a guarantee that rankles paleontologists. Unlike many countries that carefully control dinosaur fossils found on public and private lands, the United States restricts the collecting of fossils only on public lands. Fossils found on private land, as in this case, belong to the landowner.

As much as this may annoy my paleo friends here, I have to say that I agree the fossils on someone's private land ought to belong to them.  However, I do feel this is a travesty no museum has been able to buy the specimens.  This is a stunning fossil find!  Probably a full skeleton of a Nanotyrannus.  A non-Triceratops (to my untrained eye) ceratopsian from the Hell Creek Formation!  Wow!

If ever there was a call for a kickstarter campaign this would be it.

hmmm.

As if I didn't have enough on my plate...

You know what, if you're interested in helping get a KS campaign going, email me at anzha lyu [at] gmail dont com.