Description
| Product ID: | 9781911617907 |
| Product Form: | Paperback / softback |
| Country of Manufacture: | GB |
| Title: | The Dinosaur Artist |
| Subtitle: | obsession, betrayal, and the quest for Earth’s ultimate trophy |
| Authors: | Author: Paige Williams |
| Page Count: | 432 |
| Subjects: | True crime, True crime, True stories of discovery, Dinosaurs and the prehistoric world: general interest, Rocks, minerals and fossils: general interest, True stories: discovery / historical / scientific, Dinosaurs & the prehistoric world, Rocks, minerals & fossils |
| Description: | Select Guide Rating New Yorker magazine staff writer Paige Williams delves into the surprisingly perilous world of fossil collectors in this riveting true tale. In 2012, a New York auction catalogue boasted an unusual offering: ‘a superb Tyrannosaurus skeleton’. In fact, Lot 49135 consisted of a nearly complete T. bataar — a close cousin to the more-famous T. rex — that had been unearthed in Mongolia. At 2.4 metres high and 7.3 metres long, the specimen was spectacular, and the winning bid was over $1 million. Eric Prokopi, a 38-year-old Floridian, had brought this extraordinary skeleton to market. A one-time swimmer who’d spent his teenage years diving for shark teeth, Prokopi's singular obsession with fossils fuelled a thriving business, hunting for, preparing, and selling specimens to clients ranging from natural-history museums to avid private collectors like Leonardo DiCaprio. But had Prokopi gone too far this time? As the T. bataar went to auction, a network of paleontologists alerted the government of Mongolia to the eye-catching lot. An international custody battle ensued, with Prokopi watching as his own world unravelled. The Dinosaur Artist is a stunning work of narrative journalism about humans' relationship with natural history, and about a seemingly intractable conflict between science and commerce. A story that stretches from Florida's Land O' Lakes to the Gobi Desert, The Dinosaur Artist illuminates the history of fossil collecting — a murky, sometimes risky business, populated by eccentrics and obsessives, where the lines between poacher and hunter, collector and smuggler, and enthusiast and opportunist can easily blur. |
| Imprint Name: | Scribe Publications |
| Publisher Name: | Scribe Publications |
| Country of Publication: | GB |
| Publishing Date: | 2018-09-13 |
