Rex Appeal: The Amazing Story of Sue, the Dinosaur That Changed Science, the Law, and My Life
Unraveling the fascinating puzzle of who the Tyrannosaurus rexes were and how they lived, this book shares the amazing story of the uncovering and painstaking restoration of prehistory’s most popular monster. Written by the most successful T. rex hunter in history, this guide tells how a crew without university grants or funding, even without PhDs, were able to buck the academic establishment and sometimes even the United States government and the FBI in the pursuit of discovery. Legal issues...
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When Peter Larson and his team at the Black Hills Institute discovered the world's largest and most complete Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton beneath a South Dakota butte in 1990, Larson knew it was the find of a lifetime. He had no way of foreseeing that "Sue," as they called the fossil, was about to plunge him down a rabbit hole into a topsy-turvy world of FBI agents, government prosecutors, powerful museums, Native American tribes, and competing paleontologists. As Larson began the biggest battle of his life - to hold on to Sue and to keep himself out of prison - an amazing thing happened. He and his Black Mills team began finding more and more T. rex. Reinventing the science of paleontology and hitting paydirt again and again, Larson became a lightning rod for the controversies rocking paleontology and the envy of fellow bonehunters everywhere. New Scientist Magazine Fascinating bring[s] alive the mixture of grit and glamour in recovering fossils.
\ Denver PostRiveting .a highly readable adventure story. tough, if not impossible, for fossil fans on either side of the political fence to put down.\ \ \ \ \ New Scientist MagazineFascinating bring[s] alive the mixture of grit and glamour in recovering fossils.\ \ \ Publishers WeeklyPaleontologist Peter Larson recalls the discovery that made him and his colleagues at the Black Hills Institute of Geological Research instant stars and in trouble with the law in his memoir Rex Appeal: The Amazing Story of Sue, the Dinosaur That Changed Science, the Law, and My Life. In 1990, his team discovered the largest and most complete Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton that the world had seen. Almost immediately, however, the team (which is unaffiliated with any university) became embroiled in a dispute with the U.S. government about who owns the fossil, during which the skeleton was seized by the National Guard. Co-written with his wife, journalist Kristin Donan, the book recounts the heated legal battles but focuses primarily on Larson's adventures in South Dakota, where his group eventually found six more T. rex fossils.\ \ \ \ \ Library JournalThe largest, most complete Tyrannosaurus rex fossil was discovered in 1990 by Sue Hendrickson, but it was the Black Hills Institute team, headed by Larson, that did the backbreaking, labor-intensive work of carefully excavating its bones from beneath a butte in South Dakota. So how did the fossil named Sue end up in Chicago's Field Museum? Despite a verbal contract, in which Larson paid Maurice Williams $5000 to excavate and remove the fossil from his land, federal agents seized Sue and brought charges against Larson and the Black Hills Institute. The ensuing trial centered around ownership of the land where Sue was discovered and whether or not Larson and the Black Hills Institute were involved in illegally hunting and selling fossils. Larson's unfortunate experience underscores the lack of appropriate regulation for fossil collecting as well as the valuable service qualified independent collectors provide to professional paleontologists. Larson and Donnan, an NBC reporter who covered the case and later married Larson, also present the latest information regarding Tyrannosaurus rex anatomy, gender determination, and similarity to birds. While Steven Fiffer's account of events in Tyrannosaurus Sue is more objective and comprehensive, Larson and Donnan's book provides the personal, behind-the-scenes drama that only someone who lived it could provide. Highly recommended for most libraries. Gloria Maxwell, Penn Valley Community Coll. Lib., Kansas City, MO Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.\ \
