The Dinosaur Dealers Dinosaur Dealers text pages 2/9/03 1:06 PM Page i Dinosaur Dealers text pages 2/9/03 1:06 PM Page ii This page intentionally left blank The Dinosaur Dealers john long Dinosaur Dealers text pages 2/9/03 1:06 PM Page iii First published in 2002 Copyright © Dr John Long, Alley Kat Productions Pty Ltd, Electric Pictures Pty Ltd, Australian Film Finance Corporation Limited, ScreenWest Inc. 2002 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher. The Australian Copyright Act 1968 (the Act) allows a maximum of one chapter or 10% of this book, whichever is the greater, to be photocopied by any educational institution for its educational purposes provided that the educational institution (or body that administers it) has given a remuneration notice to Copyright Agency Limited (CAL) under the Act. Allen & Unwin 83 Alexander Street Crows Nest NSW 2065 Australia Phone: (61 2) 8425 0100 Fax: (61 2) 9906 2218 Email: info@allenandunwin.com Web: www.allenandunwin.com National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication data: Long, John A., 1957–. The dinosaur dealers: mission, to uncover international fossil smuggling. ISBN 1 86508 829 3. 1. Vertebrates, Fossil. 2. Smuggling. I. Title. 560 Map by Ian Faulkner Typset by Midland Typesetters, Maryborough, Victoria Printed by McPherson’s Printing Group 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Dinosaur Dealers text pages 2/9/03 1:06 PM Page iv Prologue vii 1 Broome Dinosaurs 1 2 Violation 7 3 Reopening the Case 18 4 Investigations in Eastern Australia 29 5 London Calling 46 6 Undercover in Hamburg 59 7 In Frankfurt 73 8 Denver, Utah and South Dakota 85 9 Dragon Bone Sale 106 10 The Fossil Fish Capital of the World 125 11 Fossil-related Crime in South America, India and Africa 137 12 The World’s Largest Fossil Fair 154 13 Back to Australia 178 14 The Future of the Fossil Industry 187 Epilogue: A Personal Story 200 Appendix: How to Check if that Fossil is Legal 207 References 213 Acknowledgements 219 Contents v Dinosaur Dealers text pages 2/9/03 1:06 PM Page v Dinosaur Dealers text pages 2/9/03 1:06 PM Page vi This page intentionally left blank The theft of rare dinosaur footprints in late 1996 from an isolated beach near Broome, in the far north of Western Australia, sent shockwaves through the peaceful world of palaeontology. The prints were thought to be the only known good trackway of a stegosaur in the world, and the only evidence for this dinosaur family having existed in Australia. The theft so infuriated the local Aboriginal peoples that the Elders threw a curse upon the perpetrators. Never before had such a site, sacred to palaeontologist and Aboriginal alike, been so publicly violated. The crime made front-page news in the Australian newspaper on 16 October, and was reported on major news networks around the world. Although local police conducted a thorough investigation into the crime, no firm leads were established and the case was left unsolved. Then, in late 1998, another stolen fossil dinosaur footprint from Broome came into the public eye. This time the thief, a local man by the name of Michael Latham, was caught. He received two concurrent sentences of two years, for the thefts of fossilised human Prologue vii Dinosaur Dealers text pages 2/9/03 1:06 PM Page vii footprints from a remote site in the Dampier Peninsula, and a single large dinosaur footprint from near Broome, in addition to seven years for drug-related charges. In pursuing their investigations, however, the police were unable to link this crime to the first theft of the rare stegosaur prints. Perth filmmaker Alan Carter read about the thefts of the Broome dinosaur footprints, and had the idea of making a documentary about the case. He approached me to see if I would help him investigate the whereabouts of the missing tracks. Had they left the country, destined for some wealthy private collector’s house? Or were they still hidden in a backyard garage in Broome somewhere? Alan’s film would also be an excellent vehicle in which to explore the whole issue of fossil site protection and illegal fossil trading. Would I like to be involved in the project? As a palaeon- tologist with the Western Australian Museum, my brief is to study the fossils of the State. Naturally, I wanted to help recover the stolen prints, so I readily agreed. Our first step was to contact Sergeant John Yates, of the Western Australia Police Force, who headed the original investigation at Broome in 1996. We then asked Wyoming lawman Sergeant Steve Rogers, a specialist who fights fossil-related crime in the USA, if he would help us. Combining their specialist knowledge with my background in palaeontology, we set off to dig for more clues in Broome. Little did we know that our investigation would lead us on an international hunt for the specimens—to Germany, London, the United States and China. Along the way we would explore the issues of fossil site protection, fossil legis- lation, fossil export regulations, fossil smuggling, fossil poaching from government lands and the fossil fraud industry. I want to use this information to try to inform governments of ways in which they can formulate better protection for their fossil sites and, in particular, to assist in The Dinosaur Dealers viii Dinosaur Dealers text pages 2/9/03 1:06 PM Page viii the formulation of local legislation in Western Australia. But my main aim at the time was the same as Alan’s—to try to recover the stolen dinosaur footprints and return them to their local custodians. Fossils are a multimillion-dollar business worldwide. One specimen alone, a Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton, recently sold for over US$8 million. Where big money is involved, often so is big crime. We never expected our investigation to open up such a can of worms, but it did, as you will see. Dates and places mentioned in this book are mostly correct. In some cases, however, they have been changed for legal reasons. Prologue ix Dinosaur Dealers text pages 2/9/03 1:06 PM Page ix x PACIFIC OCEAN ATLANTIC OCEAN Kemmerer Erfoud MOROCCO Auca Mahueva Boulder Como Bluff Tucson Rapid City Ham Frank f Buenos Aires Dinosaur eggs Rio de Janiero Ariripe Plat. London Lyme Regis P a t a g o n i a mb f Dinosaur Dealers text pages 2/9/03 1:06 PM Page x [...]... Yates at the Broome police station and discuss the case with him He produces the complete police file on the 1996 stegosaur print 21 Dinosaur Dealers text pages 2/9/03 1:07 PM Page 22 The Dinosaur Dealers case, including detailed photographs of the crime site which he took the day it was reported Steve and I examined the photographs The photos showed lines of plug and feathering in the rock These are... find their way to the Earth’s surface, and gradual erosion once more exposes the dinosaur footprints 8 Dinosaur Dealers text pages 2/9/03 1:07 PM Page 9 Violation In many cases, as with the Broome prints, the exact layer which was depressed by the dinosaur s foot may not be shown on the surface, but instead we see the underprint (sediment layers depressed by the dinosaur s weight which lie below the. .. of moderate size, 3 Dinosaur Dealers text pages 2/9/03 1:06 PM Page 4 The Dinosaur Dealers maybe only five or six metres long Colbert and Merrilees published their findings in the Proceedings of the Royal Society of Western Australia in 1967 This was the first detailed study of dinosaur footprints from Australia, and the first record of dinosaur fossils from the western half of the Australian continent... infilled the footprint depression and now appear as layers above the ground level where the dinosaur walked) Not only are Broome’s dinosaur footprints well preserved, but the variety of dinosaur tracks identified there by Tony Thulborn and his co-workers makes the Broome sites among the most diverse collection of dinosaur footprints of that age anywhere in the world To study dinosaur trackways the palaeontologist... careful reading of the tracks left by dinosaurs (Thulborn 1990, p 13) About 110 million years ago, a stegosaur left its footprints in the sands near Broome In 1996, some of these fossils were stolen 7 Dinosaur Dealers text pages 2/9/03 1:07 PM Page 8 The Dinosaur Dealers Dinosaur footprints are more than just fossils formed from the impressions left by the feet or hands of a dinosaur The preceding passage... charged over the footprints stolen in 1996 which, as we know, is not true He was charged with the theft of dinosaur footprints from the Crab Creek area, Roebuck Bay Was there a connection between the two thefts? If so, where did the stegosaur prints end up? The time had come to make further enquiries, but we would need to bring in expert help An expert in fossilrelated crime 17 Dinosaur Dealers text... just how much we can learn of dinosaur behaviour from the study of their trackways Dinosaur bones tell us what a dinosaur may have looked like, but dinosaur trackways tell us how these fascinating beasts moved, rested, stalked, how fast they walked or ran, how they looked after their young The most important thing to stress here is that each dinosaur footprint belongs to the trackway sequence it is found... want the Western Australian Museum involved with the 22 Dinosaur Dealers text pages 2/9/03 1:07 PM Page 23 Reopening the Case site The Museum’s previous involvement at the site had caused some dismay among local Aboriginals, because of the documentary made in 1991, when we visited the site with Tony Thulborn, Peter Bindon and the Perth Logistics Battalion of the Army Some of the locals believed that the. .. Station, where the video of the fossil was found after a police search 15 Dinosaur Dealers text pages 2/9/03 1:07 PM Page 16 The Dinosaur Dealers Once again I was asked to submit a witness statement outlining the rarity and scientific significance of the Broome dinosaur footprints Eighteen months later, as the case came to trial, I was asked to make myself available as an expert witness As the defendant... heritage trail The next time I heard about the famous stegosaur site was in October 1996 News of the dinosaur footprint theft came to me via a phone call from the Kimberley Land Council, a few days before the story was broken to the media 6 Dinosaur Dealers text pages 2/9/03 1:07 PM Page 7 Violation 2 the study of trace fossils allows us to reconstruct a remarkably detailed picture of dinosaurs as . The Dinosaur Dealers Dinosaur Dealers text pages 2/9/03 1:06 PM Page i Dinosaur Dealers text pages 2/9/03 1:06 PM Page ii This page intentionally left blank The Dinosaur Dealers john long Dinosaur. crustal movements, these layers eventually find their way to the Earth’s surface, and gradual erosion once more exposes the dinosaur footprints. 8 The Dinosaur Dealers Dinosaur Dealers text pages. crime to the first theft of the rare stegosaur prints. Perth filmmaker Alan Carter read about the thefts of the Broome dinosaur footprints, and had the idea of making a documentary about the case.