The United States v. One Tyrannosaurus Bataar

Overheard at National Geographic

National Geographic

Science, Society & Culture

4.5 • 10.1K Ratings

🗓️ 30 June 2020

⏱️ 19 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

When a Mongolian paleontologist sees a dinosaur skeleton illegally up for auction in the United States, she goes to great lengths to stop the sale. For more information on this episode, visit nationalgeographic.com/overheard Want more? Read about the latest discoveries in paleontology, such as the T.Rex's survival strategy for when food was scarce. Find out about the entrepreneur from Florida who went to jail for smuggling Mongolian fossils. Learn about the two leading theories for why dinosaurs went extinct in the first place. Also explore: Watch the final return of the fossil that was auctioned off in New York to Bolor Minjin and other representatives of the Mongolian government. Bolor once took a Winnebago filled with dinosaur exhibits off-road, across the Gobi. Read more about how she's helping to educate Mongolians about paleontology at The Institute for the Study of Mongolian Dinosaurs. And for paid subscribers: Take a look behind the scenes at the private collectors who are buying dinosaur bones. Bones are the most common type of dinosaur fossil, but in the right conditions, scales and even skin can be preserved. See pictures of a petrified nodosaur on our website. If you like what you hear and want to support more content like this, please consider a National Geographic subscription. Go to natgeo.com/exploremore to subscribe today. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	You know, since 1920s, our fossils have been found from Mongolia left the country.
0:11.6	Either for research or illegally stolen out.
0:20.2	Alursat's egg-m engine is a Mongolian paleontologist.
0:24.4	Eight years ago, she saw something on TV that really made her mad.
0:29.7	I saw local news in New York sitting in a coffee shop and showing this dinosaur.
0:38.0	But they turned off the volume I couldn't tell.
0:40.9	You know, I just assumed, oh, maybe that's another new species of dinosaur.
0:44.6	But then it looked Mongolian.
0:48.2	So then I went home and I searched on Google.
0:53.0	And I found the image and then that led me to auction houses, website.
1:00.7	The auction house that was selling the dinosaur.
1:04.2	It was a 24-foot skeleton of a Tarbosaurus batar, a two-team monster similar to T-Rex that's
1:11.6	only ever been found in Mongolia.
1:14.4	It shouldn't have been for sale.
1:17.3	Then find out what this dinosaur is going to be auctioned in three days for almost
1:22.2	$1 million.
1:24.4	So it was...
1:25.4	What about it?
1:26.4	It was going to be auctioned for $1 million?
1:28.0	Yes.
1:29.0	So I quickly wrote an email to Mongolia.
1:33.4	We have to stop this auction.
	...

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