Boston
STEVEN SPIELBERG isn鈥檛 the only one with money riding on the success of
The Lost World, the sequel to Jurassic Park, which opens in
the US this week. An American fossil dealer hopes to cash in on the film鈥檚
release by hiring billboards in New York and Los Angeles to sell one of the
three most complete skeletons of the film鈥檚 star, Tyrannosaurus rex
.
Jim Wyatt, based in Garland, Texas, offered the fossil, dubbed 鈥淢r. Z. Rex鈥�,
for sale on his Web site last month. His asking price is $10
million鈥攏early ten times more than the previous record for a fossil.
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Wyatt is marketing the fossil for Alan Detrich of Great Bend, Kansas, who
discovered it in 1992 on private land in South Dakota, excavated it, and stored
it in a warehouse. More than 60 per cent of the bones are preserved, including a
record 33-centimetre tooth.
鈥淚t is a very, very good rex,鈥� says Neal Larson of the Black Hills
Institute of Geological Research in Hill City, South Dakota, a private company
that excavates, prepares and sells fossils鈥攁nd runs its own dinosaur
museum. 鈥淭he preservation is wonderful.鈥�
Detrich wants the fossil to go to a museum or someone who will donate it to
one. The price includes mounting. Wyatt argues that the fossil will be a great
museum attraction. 鈥淲hoever buys this specimen will get their money many times
over from ancillary sales,鈥� he claims. However, many experts doubt that the
fossil will fetch $10 million. One fossil dealer contacted by New
杏吧原创 gasped in astonishment at the asking price.
A second T. rex, the world鈥檚 most complete, is to go under the
hammer this autumn at Sotheby鈥檚 in New York. The reserve price is expected to be
around $1 million. That fossil, called 鈥淪ue鈥�, was seized from the Black
Hills Institute by the FBI in 1992 during a complex dispute over the legality of
excavation (Forum, 4 July 1992, p 48).
The courts eventually granted ownership to rancher Maurice Williams, on
whose land the fossil was found. The only other T. rex with more than
half of its bones preserved, known as 鈥淪tan鈥�, is the star attraction at the
Black Hills Institute鈥攚hich has no plans to sell it.