Other fossil-rich countries, such as Brazil, China, and Mongolia, have similar laws, though black markets dealing in fossils from these countries persist.Īcademic paleontologists have a range of views on the legal fossil trade, from begrudging acceptance to steadfast opposition. In Alberta, Canada, for instance, fossils found in that province can’t be exported according to a 1970s law that designates fossils as part of Alberta’s natural heritage-a legal response to decades of foreign museums removing exquisite dinosaur fossils from the province. is one of only a few countries that allows this sort of trade. However, fossils found on private land-including Big John-belong to the landowner and can be bought and sold legally. In the United States, only researchers with government permits can collect fossils on the millions of acres of federal lands, and these remains must be held in the public trust at institutions such as museums. “What does being the biggest add to science or to our knowledge of dinosaurs?” But as a selling point for private collectors, he adds, “it’s a game changer.” The value of a fossilīig John is one of more than 100 known fossils of Triceratops, one of the most common dinosaurs found in western North America’s Hell Creek Formation, which snakes through parts of Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wyoming. Scientifically, the fact that Big John has the largest known skull among documented Triceratops is “basically pointless,” acknowledges Iacopo Briano, a gallery owner and natural history auction expert who worked with Binoche et Giquello to promote the sale of Big John. Even so, “it’s very limited in how useful it would be for science,” says Denver Fowler, curator of the Badlands Dinosaur Museum at North Dakota’s Dickinson Museum Center. The mounted fossil cuts a dashing figure, and the animal has an intriguing wound in its frill that healed during its life. While it’s uncommon to find a Triceratops skull together with its skeleton, as was the case with Big John, the dinosaur’s completeness-with 75 percent of its skull and 60 percent of the full skeleton-isn’t unheard of, and its bones vary in quality from beautifully preserved to weathered. On October 21, the Paris-based auction houses Binoche et Giquello and Hôtel Drouot sold Big John on behalf of the Italian fossil firm Zoic for the highest price ever paid at a European auction for a fossil-and the highest price ever paid at auction for a fossil creature other than Tyrannosaurus rex. With a reconstructed skull stretching more than five feet long (155 centimeters), Big John’s noggin is a few inches larger than any Triceratops skull that has been documented in the scientific literature, earning the dinosaur a Guinness World Record. ( Venture inside the homes-and minds-of private fossil collectors in National Geographic magazine.) Some scientists are worried that the growing prices for ancient bones could drive future fossils into private collections, preventing researchers from studying the irreplaceable remains. rex skeleton called Stan sold to an anonymous buyer in a court-mandated auction for $31.8 million-the most ever paid for a fossil. A little more than a year ago, a scientifically important T. With much fanfare and a jaw-dropping sale price of $7.7 million (6.65 million euros) to an anonymous buyer last month, Big John became a big deal-and added fuel to an ongoing, thorny debate among scientists, auctioneers, commercial paleontologists, and private landowners.īig John is just the latest high-profile fossil to sell for millions of dollars. Then, in 2020, he sold the fossil to an Italian firm that prepared it for auction. museum would purchase it-but none came forward. For six years, he held on to the Triceratops in hopes that a U.S. The founder of a South Dakotan firm called PaleoAdventures, which digs up fossils for commercial sale, Stein nicknamed the fossil “Big John” after the owner of the ranch where he found it. Stein realized he was looking at the horns of a Triceratops, and despite the horns’ weathered condition, he could tell that they belonged to a big one. Walter Stein was exploring a ranch in Perkins County, South Dakota, in 2014 when he stumbled across a root-covered set of bones that had tumbled out of an eroding hillside.
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