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\"The discovery of stunning, feathered dinosaur fossils coming out of China since 2006 suggests that these creatures were much more bird-like than paleontologists previously imagined. Further evidence--bones, genetics, eggs, behavior, and more--has shown a seamless transition from fleet-footed carnivores to the ancestors of modern birds. Mixing colorful portraits with news on the latest fossil findings and interviews with leading paleontologists in the United States, China, Europe, and Australia, John Pickrell explains and details dinosaurs' development of flight.\"--Dust jacket flap.

The discovery of stunning, feathered dinosaur fossils coming out of China since 2006 suggest that these creatures were much more bird-like than paleontologists previously imagined. Further evidence—bones, genetics, eggs, behavior, and more—has shown a seamless transition from fleet-footed carnivores to the ancestors of modern birds. Mixing colorful portraits with news on the latest fossil findings and interviews with leading paleontologists in the United States, China, Europe, and Australia, John Pickrell explains and details dinosaurs' development of flight. This special capacity introduced a whole new range of abilities for the animals and helped them survive a mass extinction, when thousands of other dinosaur species that once populated the Earth did not. Pickrell also turns his journalistic eye toward the stories behind the latest discoveries, investigating the role of the Chinese black market in trading fossils, the controversies among various dinosaur hunters, the interference of national governments intent on protecting scientific information, and the race to publish findings first that make this research such a dynamic area of science.

Film about the fight over T-Rex Sue between group of paleontologists and the U.S. government. A look at the fight over Sue, the largest and most complete T-Rex skeleton ever found. Congress passes a spending bill by midnight to keep the government open.

Film about the fight over T-Rex Sue between group of paleontologists and the U.S. government. A look at the fight over Sue, the largest and most complete T-Rex skeleton ever found. Congress passes a spending bill by midnight to keep the government open.

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. First of all, the size is just so imposing. [...]finding Sue the Tyrannosaurus Rex, here's the anchor for the museum. The U.S. Attorney at the time, Kevin Schieffer, got reporters together in the Federal Building in Rapid City and announced that the seizure was ongoing. The federal government doesn't show up with the National Guard and an Assistant or pardon me, an acting United States Attorney in pancake makeup, with the intention of working things out somewhere down the road. There could have been a gang in this town with a warehouse holding a ton of cocaine and human bodies hanging from the rafters, and the federal government would not have sent 35 agents and the National Guard. Two federal courts have sided with the government, saying Sue should stay in the box because there's no proof the dinosaur is being damaged there. PETER LARSON, PALEONTOLOGIST, PRESIDENT, BLACK HILLS INSTITUTE OF GEOLOGICAL RESEARCH, INC.: There are some people in this profession that really, truly believe that it is -- there's something morally wrong with selling a fossil. ROBERT BAKKER, PALEONTOLOGIST & CURATOR, HOUSTON MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY: Judge Battey held that a fossil, unlike an archaeological find, had become -- the bones had become mineralized, therefore the fossil was land. VINCENT SANTUCCI, PALEONTOLOGIST & SENIOR GEOLOGIST, U.S. NATIONAL PARK SERVICE: [...]hopefully in the broader spectrum, people can look at it and say, well, I'm glad people can't just go out into the forests or go out on to the parks and you know, take these fossils, or in this particular case, or steal stuff off from land, and somebody's going to do something about it. After the seizure of the Sue specimen, we continued to look at this issue, not from a park service jurisdiction perspective, but more from the circumstances of business practices in terms of collecting on public lands. Institute officials thought their problems were over when Kevin Schieffer was replaced as U.S. attorney, but apparently they continue to be the target of the federal government. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Because so much material had been seized, I think everybody thought that there would be a massive indictment. There are also charges in there that pertain to money laundering, structuring of currency transactions, false statements made to various government agencies. NEAL LARSON, PALEONTOLOGIST & PRESIDENT, LARSON PALEONTOLOGY UNLIMITED: 38 felony indictments, for collecting fossils? HENDRICKSON: [...]if the Japanese museum were to purchase that fossil and the guys would put that money in the bank, that's money laundering. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Because it was so hotly contested along the way, I didn't think there would be any chance that this case would settle before trial. The prosecution had four different witnesses, all who of them testified that restrictively endorsed travelers checks do not need to be declared. Maurice Williams, the rancher who found Sue has received at least six offers to purchase the T-Rex , since the courts determined that the fossil is part of Williams trust property, any purchase must be approved by the federal government. Since Sue was seized by federal agents in 1992, the fossil has been stored at the school of mines. The reason that judge did because had been urged, he had been convinced by guys with PhD's at university museums -- it had to be done, for the safety of our science and our fossils that was totally wrong. Larson was found guilty last year of charges connected to his commercial fossil hunting business in Hill city. Because you're still technically in prison. Sue's bones went on the auction block at Sotheby's auction house in New York. McDonald's and the Walt Disney Company helped put the bill and The Field Museum of Natural History reaps the benefit, South Dakotans say, she should have stayed here. Maurice Williams was there in the building and I glanced up at him, this man, supported by our government, in receiving $7 point, whatever it was million dollars, but, that fossil should have stayed in her hometown museum.

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