WHEN a Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton called 鈥淪ue鈥� was auctioned for
$8.4 million three years ago, fossils had the same kudos as works of art.
But an American palaeontologist suggests that such rock star price tags are
unlikely to be seen again. He and his team have found five new T. rex
skeletons in one season and, if they are as common as he suspects, this could
put an end to the price wars that have seen museums and collectors bid millions
for skeletons of the beasts.
鈥淭hey are basically a dime a dozen,鈥� says Jack Horner, curator of
palaeontology at the Museum of the Rockies in Bozeman, Montana. During three
months of field work this summer, Horner and his team found five new T.
rex fossils in around 15 square kilometres of Montana. Earlier fossil
hunters had 鈥減retty well worked over鈥� the area but missed the specimens, Horner
told 快猫短视频.
The rarity and mystique of T. rex fuelled the bidding for 鈥淪ue鈥� at
Sotheby鈥檚 three years ago
(快猫短视频, 11 October 1997, p 5). The
most complete T. rex skeleton known, that fossil is now on display at
the Field Museum in Chicago. Since that auction, palaeontologists have worried
that soaring prices would put the world鈥檚 best fossils in the hands of rich
collectors and encourage hasty, and damaging, excavations by profiteers.
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Those fears were reinforced early this year when another T. rex,
called 鈥淢r. Z. rex鈥�, was put up for sale by the Internet sites millionaire.com
and Lycos. No deal has yet been announced, but a spokesman for
millionaire.com says the final negotiations on the sale will be completed
sometime in December.
But Horner says his discovery of five new skeletons in one season suggests
鈥渢hat T. rex was a lot more common than we thought鈥�. He doubts that the
team just got lucky. The researchers deliberately looked for T. rex and
discovered the fossils at separate sites. Also, the ages of the five fossils
spanned some 1.5 million years, ruling out any suggestion that they had stumbled
upon a herd of the beasts.
Horner believes that systematic searches could uncover enough T. rex
skeletons for most large museums to have their own. There are only some 30 to 40
T. rex skeletons in museum collections around the world, and most are
less than half complete. His field crew have recovered one incomplete T.
rex, and will return for the other four skeletons next year.
Palaeontologists hope the abundance of T. rex specimens will keep
fossil prices from spiralling out of the reach of scientists, who have to work
within tight budgets. 鈥淚 hope it鈥檚 going to make these things worth a lot less
on the marketplace for fossils than they have been,鈥� says Tom Holtz, a
tyrannosaur specialist at the University of Maryland in College Park.
But he also worries that a glut of fossils could produce an unwelcome side
effect. Excavators may be more likely to search for fossils to keep or sell
privately, arguing that there are now enough specimens to go around to satisfy
both scientists and dealers.