Dinosaur 13—a documentary about the Tyrannosaurus rex fossil nicknamed Sue and owned by our own Field Museum of Natural History—reaches its nadir when paleontologist Peter Larson confesses that he used to talk to Sue through the exterior window of a storage space at the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology. Larson, a founder of the Black Hills Institute of Geological Research, Inc., supervised excavation of the giant fossil in August 1990 after Sue Hendrickson, one of his staff, discovered it in the Cheyenne River Indian Reservation in western South Dakota. Two years later the FBI, disputing Larson’s purchase of the fossil, raided the BHI facility in Hill City, South Dakota, and seized the artifact, which was then housed at the school pending the outcome of court proceedings. “Peter was in love with that dinosaur,” testifies a tearful BHI staffer, and strings swell over a reenactment of Larson murmuring to Sue through the window.
Sue probably died in the jaws of another T. rex and sank into a pool of water and mud that protected her remains from scavengers, but that was nothing compared to the legal morass that consumed the Larsons after the feds raided their headquarters. The discovery site was located on land belonging to a Sioux tribesman, Maurice Williams, but held in trust by the U.S. government; Maurice accepted a check from Peter Larson for $5,000—then the largest amount ever paid for a dinosaur fossil—and was even captured on video acknowledging the transaction. But this handshake deal fell apart, with both Williams and the Sioux tribe claiming ownership of Sue, and the U.S. attorney handling the case accused the Larsons of having violated the Antiquities Act of 1906. The Larsons sued the federal government but lost; the judge in the case ruled that because the fossilized skeleton was mineralized and thus part of the land, it fell inside a statute that prohibited the sale of land held in trust by the U.S. government.
Earlier this year Larson fired back at critics in an editorial for the web site Paleontologia Electronica, pointing out that “commercialism has remained a crucial and functionally key element of paleontology throughout its history.” Over the past few centuries, commercial excavators have been responsible for numerous scientific breakthroughs and have pioneered techniques that advanced the art of fossil recovery. Many of the great public museums, Larson points out, began as private collections, and the profit motive animates private landowners who might otherwise let their fossils weather away in the sun. The best path forward, he argues, is a spirit of cooperation between amateurs, academic institutions, and companies like his own: “Working in partnership we can all help to solve the contracting job market and diminishing public funds for paleontological research and exhibits.” Right or wrong, this is a more nuanced argument than you’re going to find in Dinosaur 13, a tale of merciless predation and powerful jaws.
Directed by Todd Douglas Miller
