Page 28 - ARUBA TODAY

A28 SCIENCE
Tuesday 20 November 2018

Fight over dinosaur fossils comes down to what's a mineral

By AMY BETH HANSON learned about the fossils
Associated Press — a 22-foot-long (7-me-
HELENA, Mont. (AP) — ter-long) theropod and a
About 66 million years after 28-foot-long (9-meter-long)
two dinosaurs died appar- ceratopsian.
ently locked in battle on The Murrays sought a court
the plains of modern-day order saying they owned
Montana, an unusual fight the Dueling Dinosaurs,
over who owns the entan- while the Seversons asked
gled fossils has become a a judge to find that fossils
multimillion-dollar issue that are part of the property's
hinges on the legal defini- mineral estate and that
tion of "mineral." they were entitled to partial
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court ownership.
of Appeals ruled last week It had wider implications
that the "Dueling Dinosaurs" because the ranch is in an
located on private land area that has numerous
are minerals both scien- prehistoric creatures pre-
tifically and under mineral served in layers of clay and
rights laws. The fossils be- sandstone. Paleontologists
long both to the owners of have unearthed thousands
the property where they of specimens now housed
were found and two broth- in museums and used for
ers who kept two-thirds of In this Nov. 14, 2013 file photo, one of two "dueling dinosaur" fossils is displayed in New York. research.
the mineral rights to the Associated Press But fossils discovered on pri-
land once owned by their fossils that no court in the bought it from George Sev- fossils were buried on the vate land can be privately
father, a three-judge panel country has taken up be- erson, who also transferred ranch, court records said. owned, frustrating paleon-
said in a split decision. fore. part of his interest in the A few months later, ama- tologists who say valuable
Eric Edward Nord, an attor- His clients own part of a ranch to his sons, Jerry and teur paleontologist Clayton scientific information is be-
ney for the property own- ranch in the Hell Creek For- Robert Severson. In 2005, Phipps discovered the car- ing lost.
ers, said the case is com- mation of eastern Montana the brothers sold their sur- nivore and herbivore ap- During the court case, the
plex in dealing with who that's rich with prehistoric face rights to the Murrays, parently locked in battle. Dueling Dinosaurs were put
owns what's on top of land fossils, including the Duel- but retained the mineral Imprints of the dinosaurs' up for auction in New York
vs. the minerals that make it ing Dinosaurs whose value rights, court documents skin were also in the sedi- in November 2013. Bidding
up and addresses a unique had been appraised at $7 said. ment. topped out at $5.5 million,
question of mineral rights million to $9 million. At the time, neither side sus- A dispute arose in 2008 less than the reserve price
law related to dinosaur Lige and Mary Ann Murray pected valuable dinosaur when the Seversons of $6 million.q

Dig resurrects a feud over which town is a state's oldest

By DAVE COLLINS on which was the first Eng- Jones pointed out the
Associated Press lish settlement in Connecti- Dutch built a fort in Hartford
WETHERSFIELD, Conn. (AP) cut centers on how you in 1633 that predated the
— An archaeological dig is define "town." Settlers from Windsor trading post, and
rekindling a feud between Plymouth, Massachusetts, there is some evidence
two towns over which was established a trading post there was a Dutch trading
the first in Connecticut. in Windsor in 1633. Advo- post in Hartford as early as
Experts have unearthed ar- cates for Wethersfield say 1623.
tifacts they believe date to settlers from Watertown, Archaeologists at the
the 1630s in Wethersfield, Massachusetts, made Wethersfield site say they
where town signs declare Wethersfield their home have uncovered the earli-
it the state's "most ancient," in 1634 and claim Windsor est evidence of European
founded in 1634. But a few didn't become a town un- settlement in the state.
miles up the Connecticut til 1635, when people there Among the buried finds: a
River to the north, Windsor built homes. fence believed to be from
boasts it is the state's "first "I don't think it ever will be the 17th century and built
town," settled in 1633. settled," state archaeolo- for defense against Na-
The long-running dispute gist Brian Jones said. tive American tribes; coins This Thursday, Nov. 15, 2018, photo shows ceramic plates
and ceramics dating to the believed to be from the late 18th or early 19th century sticking
1630s; beads used in trade out of the dirt at an archaeological dig site in Wethersfield,
with Native Americans; Conn.
clothing hooks and but- Associated Press
tons; and remains of meals nonprofit Public Archaeolo- records including settlers'
including seafood shells gy Survey Team. "We have diaries and other evidence
and animal bones. been able to document favoring Windsor.
"The 17th-century stuff was the lives of the people who "It doesn't change our opin-
the most exciting because live here." ion," said Christine Ermenc,
nobody knew it would be The pro-Windsor camp says executive director of the
here," said Sarah Sportman, the find makes no differ- Windsor Historical Society.
senior archaeologist for the ence. It points to written "We maintain that Windsor