Paleontologist pleads not guilty to fossil theft

A paleontologist who found one of the world's best-preserved dinosaurs has pleaded not guilty to a federal charge that he stole fossils from Bureau of Land Management property near Malta. Nate Murphy entered his plea Feb. 19 in U.S. District Court in Great Falls. The federal charge alleges Murphy took fossils from BLM land between August 2006 and August 2007 and that the fossils were worth more than $1,000. Court records are not more specific about the items allegedly taken. Murphy also faces a state charge that he took a turkey-size raptor fossil from private land near Malta with the intention of selling replicas of the fossil, which is worth between $150,000 and $400,000. Murphy didn't comment at the federal arraignment, but has previously said he never stole or sold dinosaur fossils...AP