{"product_id":"selling-stan-the-thirty-million-dollar-t-rex-and-the-global-black-market-for-dinosaur-fossils-9798259176973","title":"Selling Stan: The Thirty-Million-Dollar T-Rex and the Global Black Market for Dinosaur Fossils","description":"\u003cp\u003e • Author(s): Luna Hartwell\u003cbr\u003e • Publisher: Independently Published\u003cbr\u003e • Publisher Imprint: Independently Published\u003cbr\u003e • BISAC: Science \u0026amp; Nature - Zoology\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHow did the legal, televised auction of a T-Rex ignite a global black market?\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn 2020, the world watched as 'Stan' the T-Rex sold for a record-shattering $31.8 million. \u003ci\u003eSelling Stan\u003c\/i\u003e reveals how this single, legitimate event provided a new price ceiling and a veneer of legitimacy for an illicit global trade. It transformed fossils from scientific artifacts into a new class of high-yield financial asset, creating a powerful incentive for poaching on an unprecedented scale.\u003c\/p\u003eThe Smuggler's Trail\u003cp\u003eThe investigation follows the trail from the Gobi Desert, where climate-driven poverty forces local herders, known as \u003cb\u003e'ninjas, '\u003c\/b\u003e into the first, most exploited link of the smuggling chain. The book exposes how these poached bones are then laundered through a sophisticated network that uses fraudulent provenance papers and the very process of scientific 'preparation' to obscure their illegal origins, weaponizing the systems of international trade.\u003c\/p\u003eA Crisis of Law and Science\u003cp\u003eThis black market thrives in the legal chasm between nations. The book details how dealers exploit the difference between America's 'finder's keepers' laws and the 'national patrimony' laws of countries like Mongolia. It examines the watershed legal cases, from the prosecution over a smuggled \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eTarbosaurus bataar\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e skeleton to the social media firestorm over Brazil's \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eUbirajara jubatus\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e, that forced the art world to confront the criminal origins of its prized specimens. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eAs museums are priced out and scientists turn to forensic isotope analysis to fight back, \u003ci\u003eSelling Stan\u003c\/i\u003e uncovers the unregulated shadow market where the desires of the ultra-wealthy threaten to permanently erase the public's access to our planet's history.","brand":"Independently Published","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":47883258560663,"sku":"9798259176973","price":1174.0,"currency_code":"INR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0666\/3471\/1191\/files\/9798259176973.webp?v=1781100612","url":"https:\/\/atlanticbooks.com\/products\/selling-stan-the-thirty-million-dollar-t-rex-and-the-global-black-market-for-dinosaur-fossils-9798259176973","provider":"Atlantic Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}