The dinosaurs of South Dakota

Mark Potter Correspondent • E-mail

WINIFRED, MONTANA - On a rugged hillside overlooking a broad valley in central Montana, paleontologists Larry Derstler and Ray Vodden gingerly lifted a plaster cast protecting remains from a 75 million-year-old dinosaur.

Watching with great interest was cattle rancher Larry Tuss, who discovered the fossil and, following the traditions of dinosaur research, was allowed to name it. He called it Joyce, in honor of his wife. 

Fused together by rock and geologic time, the pile of disjointed bones is believed to be from a female lambeosaurus, also known as a duck-billed dinosaur, a 20-foot-long plant-eater. 

When the scientists have finished all their research here, and have extracted the bones, they will take them to the Rocky Mountain Dinosaur Resource Center, a private fossil company in Woodland Park, Colo., for further cleaning and assembly.

If the remains are ever sold, most likely to a museum, the land owner will get a percentage of the sale price under a lease agreement that allowed scientists to work on private property.

Many ranchers, farmers and scientists are working together now to cultivate this ancient crop. Larry Tuss has discovered the remnants of 13 dinosaurs on private land, and cooperates with paleontologists from the Resource Center.

Walking the dirt path along a steep slope, Tuss believes he has found yet another fossilized skeleton. Pointing out several pieces of rock-like material that seem different from the rest in the area, he said, "It looks like there might be a critter, if it goes from there to there."

A Tyrannosaurus Rex named 'Bucky'
In the searing heat of the South Dakota plains, 29-year-old rancher and rodeo rider Bucky Derflinger has also become a bit of a dinosaur expert and is an enthusiastic fossil-hunter who has made numerous discoveries.

In 1998, while riding on his father's 2,500-acre cattle ranch near the town of Faith, Derflinger spotted a foot-long toe bone that led to the recovery of a juvenile Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton.

"When I realized that I had found a T-rex, I literally did a black flip," he beamed. "I've never felt nothing like it." 

Derflinger coordinated his find with scientists from The Black Hills Institute of Geological Research, who studied the site and extracted the scattered remains.

The skeleton, now named Bucky, currently resides at the Children's Museum of Indianapolis. With his percentage of the sale price, Derflinger said he was able to make a down payment on his own ranch, but insists the money is secondary to his love for fossils, and for sharing it with others, particularly children.

"If I can pass it on to somebody else, that's the whole thing right there," he said.  "Maybe that little kid gets excited and gets hooked on science, and he'll invent a cure for cancer."

Derflinger's father, Wade, said fossil-hunting will never replace the income the family makes from cattle ranching.  But he concedes the money doesn't hurt, particularly in times of extreme drought, which the area is suffering now. "It's helped us. It's helped us through some tough times, yeah," he said.

When he was young, the senior Derflinger would ride the rough terrain and see dinosaur fossils, but never thought they were worth much.  "I'd see them bones sticking out, and I couldn't get anybody interested in them."

As his son was growing up, Derflinger introduced him to dinosaurs, and pointed out the remains. "He was able to take some of the bones to people who recognized them, who knew what they were,' he said.

Derflinger is proud of his son's discoveries — a long list of dinosaur species — and is especially thrilled about Bucky, the T-Rex.

"I am extremely proud that we have a specimen from this ranch that is in the children's museum" he said. "My son found that dinosaur and helped excavate it in a scientific excavation. And children from all over the world can come see."

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