Photos by Montana Hodges
Jack Horner won’t even look at a commercial find like the Dueling Dinosaurs.
Mary Ann Murray holds a Triceratops horn that Katie Busch and Rob Morrow of CK Preparations turned up on her property.
“It’s a CSI story: Cretaceous Crime Scene Investigation.” —Robert Bakker, curator of paleontology at the Houston Museum of Science natural history and therefore belong to everyone. “In the United States, there are still some things you can’t own,” Goodwin says. “You can’t own navigable waterways, you can’t buy and sell body parts, but we are (one of ) the only developed countr(ies) on the planet that doesn’t have any regulation in regards to our fossil heritage on private lands.” Shortly after Sue’s sale, Goodwin says, UC Berkeley got a bitter taste of what fossil greed can lead to when a T. rex jaw was stolen from its collection. FBI agents traced the jaw to Germany, a long journey that began after a student smuggled it into commercial hands. “At the same time that the commercial market is driving theft and the dotcom boom is going on, you have eastern Montana, where some of these ranchers are barely making a living and all they see are dollar signs,” he says. He’s dismayed by the asking price of the Dueling Dinosaurs, given that the National Science Foundation’s average annual budget for dinosaur research grants is about a half-million dollars. “I don’t have $9 million. And for anyone who does, it is just preposterous and obscene to ask for that much money.” Some scientists have come to view the Dueling Dinosaurs, asking that their visits be kept secret. But Goodwin, like Horner, refuses to look at the fossils despite their significance. “It is hard as a scientist not to want to see the material that is in private hands,” he says ruefully, “but you have to draw the line somewhere.” Chris Morrow at CK Preparations, expecting controversy, sought advice from Peter Larson of South Dakota’s Black Hills Institute. Larson is a degreed paleontologist who straddles the commercial and academic worlds by both selling fossils and publishing on specimens in repositories. He’s been in commercial fossil sales for decades and was one of the discoverers of “Sue.” His many publications are accepted within the academic community, although Horner argues they represent a conflict of interest. Larson, who is working on his
doctorate at the University of Manchester, England, says he is studying overseas because opinions on commercialism are not as extreme outside the United States. Once Larson decided that the Dueling Dinosaurs provided “definitive proof of Nanotyrannus,” the topic of his thesis, he sought to ensure that the specimens went to a recognized repository. The study of fossils is subject to policies such as those laid down by the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology, which publishes the premier dinosaur journal, Vertebrate Paleontology. The society’s code of ethics stipulates that specimens on which papers are published must be held in a recognized repository; they cannot be located in private collections where their future is uncertain. The rules are meant to ensure a specimen’s availability so that scientific conclusions can be verified. However, a lengthy approval process is needed before museums are considered repositories, and not all museums meet the requirements. The state of Montana has only one government-approved repository, the Museum of the Rockies. Even Larson was surprised at the fossils’ bitter reception from museums. He had hoped to interest his alma mater, the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology. Because he knew the school’s museum could not afford the dinosaurs, Larson offered to connect the institution with a philanthropist who could donate them. The response was peremptory. “SDSMT is not interested in obtaining the specimens by purchase or donation,” wrote then-President Robert Wharton to Larson, in a letter dated Dec. 16, 2011. (Wharton, who declined to comment on the correspondence, died in fall 2012.) Larson was shocked that the school would refuse a multimillion-dollar donation of groundbreaking specimens. “It’s almost like a religious belief,” Larson says. “It has nothing to do with reality or morality or anything else. How can you divorce yourself from private commerce? It drives the world.”
Finding the Dueling Dinosaurs felt like winning the lottery to everyone involved, especially the landowners. Mary Ann and Lige Murray came to Montana in 1971, fresh out of college and chasing the cowboy dream. They worked their way up from ranch hands to owners but haven’t yet paid off the land they bought 30 years ago. With the discovery of the dinosaurs came hope. “If you found an oil well on your land, would you be willing to just donate it or give it away?” asks Murray. “It is an investment we made when we bought the land. It’s no different than finding minerals on your place.” Phipps and his partners initially considered an auction, but their desire to have the dinosaurs available for science has kept them off the block—until now. After consultations with commercial appraisers, they priced the Dueling Dinosaurs at $9.8 million. “That’s what people don’t understand, and I don’t think our country does, because it is just three or four times in the world they have found two together. And these are the biggest and most complete,” says Murray. “Lige and I can certainly use the money, but (Clayton and his partners) can, too, and Chad is disabled. It’s a win-win for everybody.” Despite the big price tag, the Dinosaur Cowboy contends that his requests remain simple. He’s put his family’s money, along with hundreds of hours of time, into the collection and preparation of the dinosaurs, and he wants to make enough to remain on his land and pay some bills. He and his partners have watched other dinosaurs pass through the market in recent years, mostly at the drop of a gavel. Two years ago, the “Fighting Dinosaurs,” a Stegosaurus and Allosaurus found near each other in a Wyoming quarry, fetched $2.75 million
from an undisclosed buyer overseas. Offers have been made on the Dueling Dinosaurs by unnamed parties, but nothing has come to fruition. Soon the blocks will be shipped to Bonhams New York City auction house, where they’ll be offered in a Nov. 19 sale along with other fossils and collectibles. Bonhams expects the bones to fetch between $6 million and $9 million. Until then, the bones are gathering dust at CK Preparations, lingering in the hopes that Ronald McDonald, Mickey Mouse or an anonymous Samaritan will save the day. Morrow and Busch live in a trailer next to the facility they bought to house the dinosaurs. Larson’s Nanotyrannus thesis is on hold. Bakker says all the paleontological infighting has obscured the real —and important—story of these fossils, one that could change our understanding of dinosaur behavior: a duel to the death during the last days of the dinosaurs. “That comes from a sense of elitism I really dislike,” he says. “I call it the priestly caste.” For his part, Phipps wants the Dueling Dinosaurs to be publicly displayed. He’d also like to have a replica donated to the local museum in Jordan. Replicas are just fine, he says, because the town museum can’t afford to keep the heat on and icy air is bad for fossils. “I’m hoping someday I can take my grandchildren to go see them,” Phipps says, “and tell them, ‘Your ol’ granddaddy found those dinosaurs.’” Montana Hodges is a freelance writer and author of five books. She received her MA in science journalism from the University of Montana, and is currently working on her Ph.D. in paleontology. This story originally appeared in the Aug. 19, 2013 issue of High Country News (hcn.org). editor@missoulanews.com
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