Dueling Dinosaurs Got Stuck In Court

In 2006, fossil hunters in Montana uncovered an extraordinary pair of dinosaurs preserved together in what looked like a deadly struggle. The specimen then spent years in private hands while a legal battle dragged on over who actually owned it, leaving one of the most famous dinosaur finds in the world largely unavailable for full scientific study. The turning point came in 2020, when the Montana Supreme Court ruled that fossils are not minerals, helping clear the way for the fossil to reach a public museum. Once researchers finally got access, the story changed again: by 2025, the carnivore once described as a young T. rex was reidentified as Nanotyrannus lancensis.

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