- I think that there's several reasons to own fossils.

Science is only one of 'em.

- I've made millions of dollars in the dinosaur business.

- The thrill of discovery

doesn't get old.

It's almost like an addiction.

- [Narrator] There is a fight going on

in the world of dinosaur fossils.

The market for these prehistoric treasures is booming,

but increasingly, wealthy individuals

are buying up the best specimens.

And that has paleontologists worried.

- A rare, baby T-Rex fossil is for sale on eBay.

Some scientists and other critics

are calling the listing a disgrace.

- [Narrator] Last year, a baby T-Rex fossil

was listed on eBay for $2.95 million.

The sale outraged many paleontologists.

According to a letter from

the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology,

if the fossil was sold to a private buyer,

it would effectively be lost to science

since private buyers are under no obligation

to share their fossils with researchers.

- The scientific community is trying to hurt us.

They want to discourage anyone

from making money selling fossils.

I tell you what?

I've been charmed, had a charmed life.

And it's all because I pick fights

and I'm pickin' fights now.

And I'm doin' it in a different way.

I'm goin' after the scientific community.

They need to open up.

(gentle upbeat music)

- [Narrator] Alan Dietrich is the commercial fossil hunter

selling the baby T-Rex.

(door opening)

- This is Son of Sampson,

the smallest Tyrannosaurus Rex dinosaur in the world.

Son of Sampson was found in 2013,

near Jordan, Montana.

- [Narrator] Dietrich's T-Rex

is a scientifically significant find

which is why he had hoped to sell it

to the American Museum of Natural History.

- It's an important specimen.

He has made a big effort

to try to get it

into a public institution.

We were interested in it, for instance.

But it just didn't work out.

It purely comes down to an issue of price.

- [Narrator] Dietrich told The Wall Street Journal

that he offered to sell the dinosaur

to the American Museum of Natural History

for one million dollars,

which was about two million less than the asking price.

- Usually, like in the art market,

when it's been on the market for a long time,

it's either not that good or they're asking too much money.

So it gets kinda stale.

- [Narrator] But Dietrich

has been in the fossil business for decades

and he's confident that he'll find a buyer.

- You know, if you can't wait,

you'll spend too much or you won't make enough money.

This material's 65 million years old.

I can wait a few months.

I can wait a few years.

(gentle upbeat music)

- How lucrative is hunting for fossils?

That depends upon how lucky you are,

how skilled you are,

how much time you have to dedicate to it,

and how much money you have to invest in it,

in the first place.

- [Narrator] Although the commercial market is thriving,

that doesn't mean it's easy to make a living

as a fossil hunter.

- I wear many different hats.

So I'm Assistant Professor at Mayville State University.

I teach biology, ecology.

(water swishing)

That's the day job.

If I have enough time to come out here to the Badlands,

I switch hats and become the Indiana Jones

or the Jurassic Park character.

- [Narrator] This is one of the best places on Earth

to find fossils.

Every year, thousands of fossil hunters flock here

to the Badlands,

to try their luck at finding buried treasure.

Recently, one of the lucky ones was Michael Kjelland,

who runs a small, non-profit fossil hunting company.

To survey the land, Kjelland worked out a deal

with the private land owner to split the sale.

- One day I was out walking

and I went up into this box canyon.

In the distance, there was some white colored dinosaur bone.

I realized, "Wow, this is a brow horn."

And that's how we found Skull X.

- [Narrator] Skull X refers to the fossilized skull

of an adult triceratops,

which Kjelland is working to excavate.

But digging the skull out of the ground

is only the very beginning of the process

of getting the specimen to market.

Once the fossil is secure

in a dried jacket of plaster of Paris,

Kjelland will need to move

the approximately 500 pound mound of dirt and rock

across this ravine and then, up and out of this canyon.

For Kjelland, digging up fossils is a labor of love.

He knows that he will likely only break-even on Skull X

but that doesn't matter.

His primary interest is science.

- The reason why I decided to set Fossil Excavators up

as a non-profit?

Because I'm not in it just for the money.

(gentle upbeat music)

- I've made millions of dollars in the dinosaur business.

You know, I love capitalism

because the people that get to the top of the hill

get to do what they want to with their money.

Welcome to my studio

where I clean and prepare fossils.

I've sold thousands of fossils.

Right now, I have a 30-year accumulation

of triceratops dinosaur bones and T-Rex dinosaur bones

and Edmontosaurus dinosaur bones,

and some new to science bones,

I don't know what they are.

(loud drilling)

Like most commercial fossil hunters,

Dietrich doesn't have a formal education in paleontology.

But he knows his dinosaurs.

What's more, he's an accomplished artist

who can prepare and mount his own specimens.

But perhaps most importantly,

Dietrich has a gift for sales.

- Wow!

This is a 20-foot mosasaur from Kansas.

This was 85 million years old,

give or take three million years,

some people say 88 million.

(blowing loudly)

This is what you call the eye of the tiger here.

This is what gets kids excited.

Buyers, you've gotta excite their imagination.

And what I like to tell people is,

"You know, at some point

"you're gonna be able to ride this thing off

"into the sunset.

"Because your name will live on

"that you owned this dinosaur."

(gentle upbeat music)

- [Narrator] Today, private ownership of fossils

can be seen as controversial.

But things weren't always this way.

- Commercial fossil hunting has existed

since the dawn of modern paleontology.

One of our most important specimens in our own collection

that's on display here on the fourth floor

is a mummy of a duck-billed dinosaur.

That specimen was commercially purchased

from a legendary fossil hunter named Charles Sternberg.

So it's always been part of the game.

- [Narrator] The modern commercial market

took off in 1997,

when Sue, the largest in-tact T-Rex skeleton ever found

was auctioned off at Christie's for $8.3 million.

- Everybody was just astounded

that that specimen would get that much money.

I think before that,

nothing had ever been sold above like $200,000 or so.

- [Narrator] Since then, the commercial market has boomed,

driving up prices and making it harder

for public institutions like museums to compete.

- You know, most of the people in my field

would go for more regulation.

I personally would go for less regulation.

Because there's a lot more fossils out there

that are just being destroyed by neglect and erosion

than there are paleontologists

who can actually collect them.

(upbeat orchestral music)

- [Narrator] After days of careful extraction and plastering

Skull X is finally ready to move.

(clicking and whirring)

- With a budget of a couple hundred bucks,

how do you get it out of there?

You can't go out and rent a helicopter.

What we do have is a crew

that have a lot of creativity.

- We're using these metal pipes

as a bridge.

They're kinda like railroad tracks.

Then we're gonna slide it across here.

(metal clanging and banging)

(upbeat orchestral music)

(squeaking loudly)

(gentle upbeat music)

- [Mark] I think the commercial market has a place.

- Ugh!

- Okay!

- [Mark] The financial side of it gives the motivation

for people to go out and look for them and conserve them.

Some of them are just so remote

they might not even be found.

(metal clanging)

Now the bad side of the market is

people can make up things and maybe they'll make mistakes

because they weren't properly trained.

(engine running)

- Wahoo, (mumbles)!

- Yeah! (loud clapping)

- Nice, thanks, man. - Well,

you gotta be pragmatic.

As long as these things are collected ethically,

meaning that they're not stolen off public land

in this country,

or they're not imported from a country

that doesn't allow the export of any fossils,

just get real with it.

I mean, just get used to it.

I mean, this is something that's gonna happen.

(bang)

(cheerful orchestral music)