Re: Second Thoughts on Sue

[Jeff Hecht <jhecht@world.std.com>]

>
>In the fall of 1991, I visited BHI and viewed Sue in the makeshift prep lab.
> This was a few months before the FBI came knocking.  While being awe-struck
>by Sue, I was more moved by the presence of a beautiful Acrocanthosaurus
>skull which was threatened by pyrite disease.  I'm originally from Oklahoma
>and probably felt a little proprietary.  I keep wondering what's come of  the
>acro and the many like it that are slipping out the backdoor while Sue claims
>everyone's attention.

They've been working on the Acrocanthosaurus with Phil Currie, and someone
else has a second Acrocanthosaurus they're working on. I think the Sue hype
(and the hype around Giganotosaurus) is prodding more serious paleontology.

What I worry about is the bad example up in Montana, where ranchers tried
to dig up some of a T. rex Keith Rigby found, and ended up causing serious
damage to the skull. The more money such people think is in dinosaurs, they
more likely they are to try to dig them up themselves.
-- Jeff Hecht