The Bones a Cinematic Exploration of the Dinosaur Bone Trade

I just wanted to take some time to share a trailer I came across the other day. This trailer is for The Bones a new documentary film from director Jeremy Xido and Intuitive Pictures about the dinosaur bone trade. You can check out the international trailer for the film below.

The Dogwoof Sales website states the following about this new film:

THE BONES is a stunning, cinematic exploration of the high-stakes world of dinosaur bone trading, where obsessive collectors compete with museums, scientists, and high-end auction houses to own a piece of the past. It’s a story of intrigue, an illicit caper at the collision of science, commerce, and a dark colonial legacy.

Palaeontologist Bolor Minjin, the first scientist to ever repatriate fossils that had been stolen from Mongolia, travels through her homeland training the next generation of Mongolians to be the guardians of the bones. In Morocco, Nizar Ibrahim leads a team into the Saharan desert on a quest to unearth the next great scientific discovery but must negotiate with fossil dealers who want big money for the same bones.

Meanwhile, French collector and fossil dealer Francois Escuillier introduces us to the questionable world of buying and selling dinosaur bones, which today can be worth millions of dollars. And eminent palaeontologist Jack Horner—the man upon whom Jurassic Park is based—changes the concept of a fossil’s value by breaking them open, searching for molecular clues that will help him resurrect an actual dinosaur.

Part international thriller, part meditation on the nature of existence, the film reveals the hidden world of passionate, globetrotting scientists and fossil dealers battling over the meaning of THE BONES…and our uncertain future.

I am looking forward to checking the documentary film out when I am able to. It looks like the film is going to cover a lot of ground in ninety-eight minutes, so I will be interested to see how the film is put together and how it covers the massive impact of the sale of scientifically important fossil specimen which should be in the public trust in Museums or research institutions.

My Palaeontology Outreach

You can find out more about my palaeontology research at the research page which details the palaeontology projects I have done before and during my Masters. For dinosaur palaeobiology information you can check out the dinosaur fact file tab, which displays scientific information on some of the non-hadrosaurid ornithischian and hadrosaurid specimens analysed in my MSc research.

The scicomm page is also the place to explore to find out more about my science communication work covering palaeontology exhibitions, palaeontology volunteering and events. Finally, you can discover all my relevant science communication links at the scicomm links page.