The shadow of Steven Spielberg’s adventure hit Jurassic Park looms long over the various characters who discuss their involvement in the high-stakes world of dinosaur bone collection and trading. In this world, high-minded and determined palaeontologists race against well-equipped bone dealers for specimens that could either end up in in a museum for generations to enjoy or sold at auction house and spirited away into a private collection.
As it recounts the battle to own a piece of the past, Jeremy Xido’s The Bones offers up a fascinating look at the collision of science, commerce, and colonial legacy, at times feeling like of a globetrotting thriller but ultimately highlighting the need for strict rules to be applied within the dino bone world.
Dinosaurs may well have been extinct for many millions of years, but now their bones command the big bucks.
The film is beautifully shot, especially when heading to the great outdoors to follow palaeontologists on the ground, scouring deserts for precious specimens. Rather engagingly it opens with a spectacular desert vista in the Gobi Desert, in Mongolia, before cutting to two children playing with toy dinosaurs, burying them in the sand saying, “no one will find us – extinct now.”
Here palaeontologist Bolor Minjin, the first scientist ever to 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. Meanwhile in Morocco, Nizar Ibrahim leads a team into the Saharan desert but must also negotiate with local fossil dealers who want to sell on the bones.
In Europe, the French larger-than-life collector and fossil dealer Francois Escuillier explains his attitude to the dubious world of buying and selling dinosaur bones, while in the US acclaimed palaeontologist Jack Horner—who happens to be the man upon whom Sam Neill’s character in Jurassic Park is based—develops the notion of a fossil’s value by searching for molecular clues within the bones that will help him resurrect an actual dinosaur.
In his warehouse in Gannat, France, Escuillier is filmed looking for tyrannosaur teeth and questions as to why the trade in fossils is frowned upon, given they are part of the shared history of the planet. “I say why not? Just because it’s scientific doesn’t make it sacred. The fossil trade has existed for almost 300 years. We can sell oil but not dinosaurs? It’s the same story.”
He adds: “I’m not a simple merchant. I have important collections, remarkable specimens. I’ve found myself a niche between science and commerce. Certain palaeontologists will tell you I’m a thug. And others will tell you I’ve done more for palaeontology than many other professional palaeontologists. I’m simply a doctor of curiosity. When I sell an object it has a whole story that is shared with me. It becomes part of me. And when I sell it, I separate from a part of myself.”
The film flits between the various protagonists. From Bolor Minjin explaining how she got the Mongolian president to complain about a possible eBay auction of a T Rex, ultimately getting it returned to Mongoli, where it has a home in a new dinosaur museum, through to Jack Horner in the Great Plains Badlands of Montana explaining how commercial collectors keep no proper scientific records. “They are only interested in money,” he says. “There are people who have no scruples – they sell for millions for dollars.”
In 1997 Sue the T Rex was sold privately for $7,600,000 by Sothebys. Later Stan the T Rex went for $32million, with the admission that no institutions can come up with that kind of money. The film dips into a Paris auction for Big John, a triceratops, where the auction chief admits he “got deep into Jurassic Park as a child.”
For a while the film’s structure suggests that the Paris auction will act as a climax for structure, but in the end it appears three-quarters of the way through – shot in not exactly exciting fashion (perhaps due to access) – where Big John is sold for €5.5 million, hailed as a record for Europe.
After this, the film simply heads back to the various characters. For sure they are fascinating, but to an extent the film then drifts towards its conclusion, gently reinforcing the established clash between science and hard-headed capitalism. In a fascinating sequence, though, Francois Escuillier heads to the US to attend the Denver Coliseum Mineral, Fossil, Gem & Jewellery Show in Tucson, along with an estimated 65,000 attendees – one of whom happens to be the ever-enthusiastic Nizar Ibrahim who is delivering a scientific lecture in the city. The genial coming together of trader and palaeontologist is engaging, with Ibrahim admitting the world of dinosaur bones has a long “history of dodgy business” but adding the museums go to such shows to buy items alongside any other collector.
All told, The Bones is an enjoyably eye-opening – and strikingly shot – documentary about dinosaur bones, big cash and even bigger big egos.
Canada-Germany, 2024, 98mins
Dir/scr: Jeremy Xido
Production: Crave Original, Intuitive Pictures, Cabula6, Berlin Producers Media GmbH
International sales: Dogwoof Film Sales
Producer: Ina Fichman
Scr: Jeremy Xido, Nick Taylor, Eamonn O’Connor
Cinematography: Johan Legraie, Sarah Blum, Kaveh Nabatian, Bettina Borgfeld. Claire Sanford, Etienne Roussy, Lena Mill Reuillard
Eds: Nick Taylor, Tom Ranaxhe, Jacob Thusen, Boban Chaldovich
Music: Ramachandra Borcar
