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A fossil hunter is blasted for placing on eBay the skeleton of a baby Tyrannosaurus rex, claimed to be "the only one in the world", for the modest sum of $ 3 million.
It is unclear why archaeologist Alan Detrich, who discovered the 15-foot-long baby T. rex near Jordan, Montana, about six years ago, suddenly decided to put the skeleton on auctions earlier this month.
This dinosaur, 68 million years old, was still on display at the Kansas University Natural History Museum, Lawrence, when it first registered on the e-commerce site. Detrich, a native of Kansas, donated the fossil to the museum in 2017. The museum said that he had since broken his ties with Dietrich and confirmed that he was not tied to the sale as a result of an adverse reaction from customers.
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"The KU's natural history museum does not sell or prohibit the sale of specimens to individuals," said museum director Leonard Krishtalka in a statement. declaration. "As a result, the specimen loaned to us is removed from the room and returned to the owner, and we asked him to remove any association from our sales list with us."
On eBay, Detrich describes the baby T. rex as one of a kind.
"This Rex was a very dangerous meat eater, it's a rare opportunity to see a REX baby, it does not grow quickly, it could not catch prey and it would die." The histology shows that the specimen was about 4 years old at his death., "he explained in a description of the list, attributing to the curator of paleontology of vertebrates of the Natural History Museum of Florida for the reconstruction of the 21-inch skull. "Many bones are waiting to be identified, but every day more and more are labeled."
On average, 30 people watch the message every hour and hundreds of others have been documented "watching" the sale at the same time. According to the list, expedited shipping worldwide would cost $ 65,555 more.
Alan Detrich has listed the 68 million year old T-Rex on eBay for nearly $ 3 million.
(eBay / Screen Capture)
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Despite this interest, paleontologists are not satisfied with the idea that the skeleton can remain indefinitely in a private collection.
The Society of Vertebrate Palaeontology (SVP), a professional organization of scientists advocating the preservation of vertebrate fossils, wrote an open letter to Dietrich last week in which he criticized his decision to sell the priceless skeleton.
"The [SVP] is concerned that the fossil, which is part of the past of life, may lose public confidence and that its owner has used the scientific significance of the specimen, including its exposure status to KU, as part of its advertising strategy "," These events undermine the scientific process of studying past life as well as the prospect for future generations to share the natural heritage of our planet. "
The group argued that if the fossil is removed from public access, it prevents any possibility of further study, potentially drawing vital conclusions about history.
"Scientific practice requires that conclusions drawn from fossils be verifiable: scientists must be able to re-examine, re-measure and reinterpret them (such a re-examination may take place decades or even centuries after the fact) ", added SVP. "In addition, technological advances, new scientific issues and synthetic research opportunities mean that new research often uses fossils that were originally collected for another purpose."
Earlier this month, in an interview with The Wichita Eagle, Dietrich marveled that paleontologists could learn more about the life of this fascinating creature.
"Science and paleontology live fast, die young, form a pretty corpse. Dietrich told the newspaper that "this is what this baby did, T. rex died young and formed a nice corpse, but as he did, we will learn things we did not know before . "
On Wednesday morning, the baby dinosaur was still on eBay, but had not received any offers.
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