http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=19920714&slug=1502021
The Seattle Times Search
Tuesday, July 14, 1992
Company Loses Fight For Custody Of Fossil -- `Sue' In Warehouse Until Ownership Settled
By Margaret Miller
A Tyrannosaurus rex named Sue will not go home to the private company that excavated her, a South Dakota federal judge ruled yesterday.
The ruling ended a three-day custody hearing over the world's largest T. rex fossil, named for Susan Hendrickson, the Mercer Island archaeologist and diver who discovered her.
Black Hills Institute, a fossil-hunting company, sought custody of the dinosaur during litigation about her ownership. In addition to the company, both the federal government and the Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation claim rights to the most complete T. rex fossil ever found.
In making his ruling, Judge Richard H. Battey rejected testimony that the dinosaur, now stored at the South Dakota School of Mines, is infected with a "fossil cancer." Witnesses for Black Hills testified last week that unless the fossil is removed from storage and treated, pyrite crystals growing in the fossil could weaken or break it.
Underlying the clamor over Sue's disputed bones is a fundamental disagreement over the ethics of fossil hunting. Black Hills Institute members and their allies in museums across the country argue that science depends on commercial hunters.
But increasingly, government lands officials point to the meteoric cost of fossils to say that profit-driven hunting is stealing a precious resource from the public. If the trend continues, they say, only the rich will be able to enjoy fossils.
"There is nothing more thrilling than seeing a fossil in its natural setting," said John Donaldson, chief ranger at Badlands National Park.
