There are now more scientifically valuable T. rex fossils in private hands than in public museums. This is the finding of a peer-reviewed study published last year by this week’s guest, Dr. Thomas Carr, a tyrannosaur paleontologist and Associate Professor of Biology at Carthage College.

Carr designed one of the largest meat-eating-dinosaur exhibits in North America, has named several dinosaur and bird species in his career, and has become one of paleontology’s most outspoken critics of the commercial fossil trade. He’s the critic who gets called by journalists every time a T. rex goes up for auction.

We get into how a dinosaur actually ends up at auction versus in a museum, why the “public trust” system exists, and the case of Stan the T. rex as a cautionary tale for why the public/private discussion matters.

LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE
Carthage College Paleontology: https://www.carthage.edu/biology/paleontology/
Society of Vertebrate Paleontology: https://vertpaleo.org/
Avisaurus Darwini: https://www.fieldmuseum.org/about/press/predatory-birds-from-the-same-fossil-formation-as-sue-the-t-rex
Thomas Carr’s Paper: https://palaeo-electronica.org/content/2025/5499-t-rex-endangered-species

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