really surprised me. there were people that i thought were quite reasonable people, who basically said things about black hills that just were not true. there s a difference between the academic perspective of fossil collecting and the commercial perspective. there are some people in this profession that really, truly believe that it is, there s something morally wrong with selling a fossil. i was indoctrinated as an undergrad, that if you don t have a ph.d. you have no right to collect dinosaurs. i heard about the bhi and peter larson collecting fossils and i was told, these are pirates. and i visited pete larson and i visit the black hills institute, and they weren t pirates at all. they had techniques. they taught my crew. they were better than my crew. you have academias and they have these 5 doms and now here s
at him. i said, is that t-rex? he said, yes, and i think it s all here. and we haven t started digging or haven t moved anything around yet. we ve just been looking at it and taking some pictures and trying to figure out how to proceed. there s a real mass of bones here. some are caught up in concretion, but most appear to be really excellently preserved. and i believe that the tail s going that way and the skull is going this way, but we re just going to have to dig it up and see. collecting fossils is something that s very timely. fossils are discovered because they re weathering out, because the forces of nature, rain, winds, freezing, thawing, even snowfall, have an effect on that fossil. every day that it s outside is a day that it s going to destruction. we started by picking up all these thousands of fragments of bones and bagging them, labeling
present many fewer witnesses, to say, look, it s not that complicated, we were collecting fossils, we thought we would permission to be there. in this case, we weren t where you thought we were, in this case you were, it s that simple. as we were approaching the end of the trial, neil and i both felt that it was important for him to testify. 3 1/2 days, i was on the witness stand. and for 3 1/2 days, i swore to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help me god. pete ended up not testifying. the state had not proven its case. the state doesn t prove your case, your client doesn t take the stand, period.
the intensity reaction, while the court case was going on, really surprised me. there were people that i thought were quite reasonable people, who basically said things about black hills that just were not true. there s a difference between the academic perspective of fossil collecting and the commercial perspective. there are some people in this profession that really, truly believe that it is, there s something morally wrong with selling a fossil. i was indoctrinated as an undergrad, that if you don t have a ph.d, you have no right to a collect dinosaurs. and i heard about them. phi and peter larson collecting fossils and i was told, these are pirates! and i visited pete larson and i visited the black hills institute. and they weren t pirates at all. they had techniques they taught my crew. they were better than my crew. you have academias and these fights, and now here s these
and we haven t started digging or haven t moved anything around yet. we ve just been looking at it and taking some pictures and trying to figure out how to proceed. there s a real mass of bones here. some are caught up in concretion, but most appear to be really excellently preserved. and i believe that the tail s going that way and the skull is going this way, but we re just going to have to dig it up and see. collecting fossils is something that s very timely. fossils are discovered because they re weathering out, because the forces of nature, rain, winds, freezing, thawing, even snowfall, have an effect on that fossil. every day that it s outside is a day that it s going to destruction. we started by picking up all these thousands of fragments of bones and bagging them, labeling them. well, the plan of attack is to protect the specimen first of