Do you own the dinosaur bones on your property?

[MF RED in MT]

This should be easy:

When alive and above ground "they are bones";

And when dead and below ground "they are bones";

And if they are on your property, "they are yours";

And if they determine anything different, then they can come and try to take away all of my antler sheds, but they will only succeed in doing so like coming for my guns...

KC

 

[jmc]

Have backhoe. Will travel.

jmc

 

[TheMan419]

Interesting. I never thought too much about what goes into finding dinosaur bones and always just assumed it was something done by Universities with Grant Money and a bunch of students led by their Professor. Then my wife and I watched the TV show called Dino Hunters and learned more then we thought possible about dinosaurs and their fossils. Really one of the best shows that we've come across in quite awhile!!!!!

In the series, they talked about disputes with land owners and the people that find the dinosaur fossils, but they didn't go into any detail on what those disputes where. This might be one of them?

It also shows how difficult and time consuming it is to sell a dinosaur after getting it out of the ground. While the money is there, it might take a decade or longer to actually find a buyer with the cash to pay $7 or $8 million dollars for a T Rex.

If you haven't seen the show, I highly recommend it!!!

New Discovery Show Dino Hunters | Discovery

Not only the $7/8 mil to pay the land owner, but the cost of digging it up, getting it ready for display and/or study.... the cost of studying it. The $ to the land owner may well end up being a small part of the overall cost.

 

[oosik]

I don't know about dinosaur bones. But it seems that I "own" every old dusty cow bone that my dog drags into the yard.

 

[tallyho8]

Seems to me like the previous owners only sold the "surface estate". Now if the bones were found on the surface, they should belong to the purchaser but if they had to dig the bones up then the seller gets his due.

 

[JasperFrank]

I think there is some sort of misunderstanding here. A dino dies, and it leaves some bones in the dirt. Over a few million years, under the right conditons, there is mineral repalacment of any thing that was the bone. It has become the shape of the bone, but nothing is left of the original organic bone. These are rocks that are in the shape of the bones. They are not THE dinosaur. They are only the pattern of the dinosaur bones. Nothing of that original diinosaur is left. Its just the pattern that is left. So, you can't own a pattern that was created millions of years ago and these are not bones: They are rocks in the shape of bones.. Well, that would be my argument.

 

[jjp8182]

All goes back to definitions as legally defined - which is how it appears this played out: Court rules ‘Dueling Dinos’ belong to landowners, in a win for science | Science | AAAS

..at least in Montana, how it'd play out in the other 49 states or other countries is really the more interesting question.

Though given the only thing precious about fossils is the unique patterns of stone created by the replacement of the original organic materials by common (relatively worthless) minerals it's not too much of a surprise since mineral rights generally seem to be written with materials that have intrinsic (shape-independent) value in mind. ..... grind a fossil up and it's pretty much worthless, it's the pattern and shape that are precious not the material.

 

[jjp8182]

Really the more interesting thing about this find is the fact that something cataclysmic would likely have had to occur during that fight for both dinosaurs to wind up dead in such a position.......

Short of Pompeii, nuclear detonations, or (possibly) the dinosaur extinction impact event - I'd be rather hard pressed to think of instances where life ended so suddenly that routine daily activities were captured so instantaneously....

...of course that's assuming the two dinosaurs were living at the same time....

 

[Dftodd]

It's a long term play but maybe bury you and your relatives in provocative positions on your property. :anyone:

Not quite that long term. But........

 

[dragoneggs]

Not quite that long term. But........View attachment 668660

Perfect!