The Montana Supreme Court has been asked to decide whether or not dinosaur fossils are minerals and, therefore, whether the owners of the mineral rights to a plot of land also own the dinosaur fossils found there, E&E News reported yesterday (July 10) via Science.
The case in question specifically concerns a T. rex skeleton, a pair of fossils unique in that they seem to have been killed and preserved mid-fight, and other fossils found on a particular plot of land, but its implications are much broader. A decision that dinosaurs are minerals could throw into question the ownership of who-knows-how-many dinosaur specimens, including those in museums.
In Montana, where many of the world’s dinosaur fossils have been found over the years, it’s common for different people—or corporations—to own a property’s surface and mineral rights. Historically, fossils have been considered part of the surface property. If the state Supreme Court ...
