Paleontology

It Came From Below

Ty, the Tyrannosaurus Sold by Dallas-Based Heritage Auctions, Gets the New Yorker Treatment

The saga of Ty, the Tyrannosaurus bataar fossil smuggled out of Mongolia and into a May 2012 sale by Dallas-based Heritage Auctions, effectively came to a close last month when Eric Prokopi, the "commercial paleontologist" behind the sale, pleaded guilty to illegally smuggling the specimen into the ... More >>

Florida Man Who Sold a Tyrannosaurus Fossil Through Heritage Auctions Pleads to Smuggling the Dino from Mongolia

Back in May, Houston attorney Robert Painter got a panicked dispatch from the president of Mongolia: A 70 million-year-old Tyranosaurus bataar skeleton that had been illegally smuggled from the country was about to hit the auction block, and the sale must be stopped. Painter leaped into action. He ... More >>

The Ultimate Comeback

Fossil Dealer Fires Back in Custody Battle Over Dinosaur Skeleton

Two months ago, a judge in New York granted a request by the U.S. government issued a warrant for the arrest of one Tyrannosaurus bataar. The dinosaur's skeleton, which Dallas-based Heritage Auctions had attempted to sell the previous month, was suspected of being in the country illegally, having be ... More >>

If You Drive I-30, Prepare to Be Told That Dinosaurs Walked the Earth with Humans

Wait. You knew that man and dinosaur walked the earth hand-in-talon, right? Happened about 6,000 years ago? "And on the fifth day God created dinosaurs and on the sixth He made man to rideth upon them."? Well how exactly do you explain these fossil things that keep turning up? I recommend you watch ... More >>

Heritage Auctions Working With Mongolia to Determine if Dinosaur it Sold is, in Fact, Mongolian

Update at 2:30 p.m.: Just got off the phone with Jim Halperin, Heritage Auction co-chairman who confirms that the Observer is a force for peace and good in the world and that it was indeed our blog post that prompted him to reach out to Painter. As for what happens if the dinosaur turns out to be M ... More >>

Heritage Auctions is Being Sued by Mongolia -- Yes, the Country -- Over the Sale of a Dinosaur

My 3-year-old son is crushed. Yesterday, his dad was about $1,052,480 shy of purchasing a 75 percent complete fossil skeleton of a Tyrannosaurus bataar, sold by Dallas-based Heritage Auctions. Or at least I would have been had I put in a bid. It's just as well, though, because whoever purchased the ... More >>

Dinosaurs and Men Did Co-exist

Local Paleontologists Find New Dinosaur Species, Name It After Ross Perot. No, Really.

Courtesy the Museum of Nature & ScienceRoss ain't no dinosaur. At least, he wasn't.​This just in from the Museum of Nature & Science: Paleontologists at the museum are set to introduce to the world a new species of the ceratopsid dinosaur Pachyrhinosaurus at the Society of Vertebrate Paleo ... More >>

Science Wins In Evolution Denier's Campaign To Scrub Evolution From Texas Textbooks

​In July we told you about Dr. David Shorrman, author of The Exchange of Truth: Liberating the World From the Lie of Evolution and a member of the state biology panel making recommendations to the Texas Board of Education. Turns out, Shorrman (pictured to the right) was riding in the vanguard ... More >>

Say These Names Three Times Fast

If You've Ever Wanted to Own a Complete Dinosaur Skeleton, or Four, Now's Your Chance

Heritage expects the Allosaurus and Stegosaurus skeletons will go for upwards of $3 million. But that's for the pair. A bargain.​I've taken the almost-8-year-old who lives in my house to several of 'cross-the-street neighbor Heritage Auction Galleries' dinosaur auction previews, because, right, ki ... More >>

Toast the Bones

Museum of Nature and Science Paleontologist, SMU Prof Proposes Dinosaur Crap Helped Contribute to Climate Change

​Tony Fiorillo curates the Dallas Museum of Nature and Science's paleontology collection, and he's spent every summer since 1998 in Alaska, studying dinosaurs' tracks and bones. It wasn't till last year that he seriously considered all their crap. Fiorillo's also an adjunct professor at SMU, and h ... More >>

What Lies Beneath

Next Week at SMU, the Discovery Institute's Finally Nailing Darwin For Good

​If you fell prey to the siren call of the Discovery Institute's 2007 Darwin vs. Design conference at Southern Methodist University, well, dust off your fossil records and get your ape suit to the dry cleaners, because next Thursday night we're gonna do it all again.Next week's panel discussion, " ... More >>

Fight To The Dino Death

Welcome... To Jurassic Books

95 Million Reasons Why Unfair Park Needs More Dallas Dinosaur News

Courtesy Karen CarrKaren Carr, a New Mexico artists who used to live in Dallas, offers this peek at what Aetodactylus halli might have looked like back in, ya know, the day.​Big breaking news in the world of paleontology today: Back in '06, Lance Hall, a member of the Dallas Paleontological Societ ... More >>

Mighty Wings

Treasure Hunt

See some glittering rarities at the Heard

Scores Of 'Saurs

The Heard has dinos...Alive!

Jurassic Stampede

See some dinos in Cowtown

Battle Against Teaching Evolution in Texas Begins

Should creationism win out, textbooks throughout the country–not just Texas–will challenge the theory of evolution in science curricula

Walk The Dinosaur

Dinosaurs, Evolved

Cinemasaur

When dinosaurs ruled the screen

They're Alive!

The Hives

Saturday, November 27

Best Outdoor Sculpture

The Chromosaurs, Dallas Museum of Natural History

The Hives

Tyrannosaurus Hives (Interscope)

Don't Lose Your Head

Ichabod Crane learns the dangers of love

Best Place to Go for a Day Trip

Granbury, Texas

Dino-might

Life and Death in the Big Bend

Mesozoic mess

The Disney formula goes disturbingly awry in the off-putting Dinosaur

Jurassic bucks

Trade in dinosaur bones pits entrepreneurs against scientists

Spielberg's Lost

Director digs up more dinos to prove--maybe--he's still a little playful

Footprints of Fantasy

Creation scientist Dr. Carl Baugh claims he's found evidence that will explode the 'myth' of evolution. But the biggest myth is Baugh himself.

Roadshows

Quest for fire

The Dallas Museum of Natural History seeks a hot new concept to save itself from extinction