Rex Appeal: The amazing story of Sue, the dinosaur that changed science, the law, and my life by Peter Larson and Kristin Donnan, Invisible Cities Press, ÂŁ23.50/$26.95, ISBN 1931229074
TYRANNOSAURUS rex has become the world’s most famous dinosaur. Its spectacular size and undeniable menace make T. rex a star attraction of museums and movies. It dwarfs any modern predator, and fascinates serious scientists as well as wide-eyed children. The allure of the beast took Peter Larson across the North American High Plains, through the surreal landscape of the US legal system and into jail for 18 months, where he drafted this fascinating book.
Trained in geology but too independent-minded to work for an oil company, Larson started a South Dakota rock and fossil business with his brother Neil and a friend. He followed a long tradition of independent fossil hunters dating back two centuries to Mary Anning. The business prospered, and in 1990 one of Larson’s digs hit the jackpot. Volunteer Susan Henderson returned from scouting the surrounding area with two chunks of fossil bone, each smaller than the palm of her hand, which she showed to Larson. He instantly recognised the distinctive honeycomb structure of T.rex bone.
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“Where?” he asked, when he’d recovered his voice. Henderson led him to the side of a cliff two miles away, where he saw more bone fragments weathering out of the rock. Larson brought his crew to the site and began excavating the dinosaur they named “Sue”, the biggest and most complete skeleton of T. rex ever found.
At first, the discovery seemed like the dream of every fossil hunter from the age of four upwards. Larson hauled the massive bones to his lab, where his staff started to prepare them for display at a museum he had spun off from the company. Fascinated by T. rex biology, Larson tried to determine Sue’s sex. Then his troubles started.
Larson had paid rancher Maurice Williams $5000 for the right to excavate the bones, sealing the deal with only a handshake, a typical arrangement for commercial fossil hunters in South Dakota. But when Williams realised the fossil was worth serious money, he began backing away from the deal. Further complications came from the fact that Williams was part-Indian, and the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe had owned the land where Larson found the dinosaur. The tribe and Williams filed claims – then the US government, because Williams had put the land into a federal trust.
While the legal wheels ground on, the dinosaur hunts made impressive progress. In April 1992, Larson and his team started excavating another T. rex skeleton, which they named “Stan”. The following month, government attorneys sent in the FBI to seize Sue. A year later the FBI raided Larson’s Black Hills Institute again, seizing its business records. Larson began excavating a third T. rex, called “Duffy”.
Larson’s heart clearly lies with the fossils. He and co-author Kristin Donnan bring alive the mixture of grit and glamour in recovering fossils. The thrill of discovery is followed by back-breaking work to remove tonnes of rock covering the ancient bones then the diggers trade jackhammers and pickaxes for dental tools to pick away each grain of rock.
Sadly, Larson put far less effort into the paperwork. Williams wound up with Sue, which sold for $8 million at auction. Federal prosecutors threw the book at Larson for violating currency laws, drafted for use against drug smugglers. He beat most of the charges, but two felony convictions sent him to jail.
Stubborn and independent, Larson has strong opinions about the legal system. He argues that commercial fossil hunters can play an important role in palaeontology – his own career is testimony to that. The Field Museum of Natural History invited Larson to Chicago for its formal unveiling of Sue two years ago, and invited him backstage to study the fossil with other scientists. He’s still arguing with some of them about what killed Sue and “her” sex, but he says that’s fine: “Complete scientific agreement would take the fun out of it.”