The battle of dinosaur fossils comes down to what is a mineral

Amy Beth Hanson, Associate Press

Update

6:49 AM CST, Saturday 17 November 2018

Helen, Mt. (AP) – About 66 million years after the death of two dinosaurs, apparently engaged in a battle in the plains of Montana, an unusual debate about the ownership of entangled fossils has become a multi-million dollar problem that rests on the legal definition of "mineral". . "

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in the US said last week that "dueling dinosaurs" on private land are both scientific minerals and governed by mining rights laws. The fossils belong both to the owners of the property where they were found and to two brothers who retained two-thirds of the mineral rights on the land that once belonged to their father, said a panel of three judges in a split decision .

Eric Edward North, a landlord's lawyer, said the case was complex with respect to the question of who owns the land in relation to the minerals that make up it and addresses a unique issue of the law on mining rights related to the dinosaur fossils that no court in the country has taken before.

His clients own a part of a ranch of the Hell Creek Formation in eastern Montana, rich in prehistoric fossils, including the Dueling Dinosaurs, valued at between $ 7 and $ 9 million. .

Lige and Mary Ann Murray bought it from George Severson, who also transferred some of his interests to the ranch to his sons, Jerry and Robert Severson. In 2005, the brothers sold their surface rights over the Murrays, but retained their mineral rights, according to court documents.

At the time, neither party suspected of precious fossils of dinosaurs had been buried on the ranch, courts said. A few months later, amateur paleontologist Clayton Phipps discovered the carnivore and the herbivore apparently at war. Traces of dinosaur skin were also found in the sediments.

A dispute arose in 2008 when the Severson learned about the existence of fossils: a 22-foot (7-meter-long) theropod and a 28-foot-long (9-meter-long) ceratopsian.

The Murrays applied for a court order stating that they owned the dueling dinosaurs, while the Severson asked a judge to find that the fossils were part of the property's mining estate and that they were entitled to a partial property.

This had wider implications as the ranch is in a region that has many prehistoric creatures preserved in layers of clay and sandstone. Paleontologists have uncovered thousands of specimens now kept in museums and used for research.

But fossils found on private land may belong to private owners, frustrating paleontologists who claim that valuable scientific information is disappearing.

During the legal proceedings, the dueling dinosaurs were auctioned in New York in November 2013. The auction reached $ 5.5 million, less than the $ 6 million reserve price.

An almost complete Tyrannosaurus rex discovered on the property was sold to a Dutch museum for several million dollars in 2014, the proceeds of the sale being blocked pending the outcome of the legal proceedings.

Other fossils discovered on the ranch have also been sold, including a triceratops skull that brought in more than $ 200,000, court records announced.

The decision rendered on November 6 in the 9th Circuit overturned the opinion of a federal judge that fossils were not included in the ordinary definition of "mineral" because all fossils with same mineral composition are not considered valuable.

"The composition of minerals contained in fossils does not make them valuable or worthless," wrote US judge Susan Watters of Billings. "Instead, the value depends on characteristics other than the mineral composition, such as the completeness of the specimen, the species of dinosaur and the quality of its preservation."

The Severson appealed, arguing that previous court cases had determined that natural materials of particular value fit the definition of minerals.

Murrays lawyers this week asked the 9th Circuit to extend the 21 November deadline to ask the judges to re-examine the case or hold a hearing before a panel of 11 judges.