Bambiraptor skeleton and model

Dr. Martin A. Shugar, M.D., Director of the Florida Institute of Paleontology, gives a more complete history of Bambi's discovery -- In September 1997, following the return of our museum's summer field trip from our excavation site in Wyoming, Professor Edward Petuch who was our curator of paleontology told me about a remarkable new dinosaur that he had heard about from Professor Kraig Derstler of the University of New Orleans. The report on the specimen, which had been submitted to our museum administrators, was on its way to the garbage bin since the cost to procure the fossil was beyond our budget. I read the report and decided, much to the future despair of my wife and family, that this specimen was truly a "Dinosaur Rosetta Stone" and its acquisition would literally place our institution on the museum world map, thus enabling us to become a real destination point. After further research, and with the unwavering support of our museum president Robert P. Kelley, I contacted John Ostrom of Yale University. He is not only one of the grandfathers of twentieth century paleontology - the Joe Dimaggio of the dinosaur world, but also the discoverer of Deinonychus, the raptor depicted in the movie Jurassic Park. He also revitalized the theory that birds are descendants of dinosaurs in 1973. I told him about the specimen which had been discovered in Montana by the Cliff Linster family. Being astounded yet skeptical, he agreed to view and authenticate the fossil. Professor Ostrom called me from the bank vault where the specimen was housed and declared in awed and reverent tones that this was the most important dinosaur to be discovered in North America, including Tyrannosaurus rex and his own Deinonychus. He made me promise at that time, if our museum was able to secure the specimen, that we would host an international symposium focusing on the new discovery. Having received this good news, I began to search for a sponsor. I approached more than three dozen candidates ranging from local individuals and corporations to a well known Hollywood director and even, with the help of our local politicians, attempted to have the dinosaur purchased for our museum as a line item in the Florida legislative budget, to no avail. I was about to abandon the idea when I decided to tell one last person about the discovery. This astute individual, Michael Feinberg, a longtime Hollywood Florida resident and philanthropist, having his own researchers confirm what we all knew, subsequently purchased the specimen, paying for its final preparation, mounting and research. The specimen is an extraordinary new juvenile raptor. It is almost 100% complete - the most complete raptor ever found - and thus an "anatomic reference dictionary". It will provide vast amounts of information on dinosaur bird evolution. This dinosaur is exquisite: three dimensional and free standing, unlike other specimens locked in stone, and comparable in beauty and scientific importance to Archaeopteryx (universally accepted as the classic link between birds and dinosaurs). Artist's conception by Pat Redman of what Bambiraptor would have looked like The principal investigator and preparator of this raptor is David Burnham of the University of Kansas. His co-authors include: Dr. Robert T. Bakker, inspirational figure and technical consultant for the Jurassic Park books and movies, Dr. Philip Currie, Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology, Alberta Canada Dr. Kraig Derstler, University of New Orleans Dr. John Ostrom, Yale University Dr. Zhonghe Zhou, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Palaeoanthropology, Bejing, China. Visit Bambiraptor's site at http://www.bambiraptor.com/