Man sentenced for stealing dinosaur bones

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — A commercial fossil hunter, whose discovery of the world’s best-preserved dinosaur brought scientific acclaim, will serve 60 days in jail for stealing raptor bones from private land.

Nathan Murphy, 51, a self-taught paleontologist, was convicted in March of felony theft for taking the raptor fossil from a ranch in northern Montana.

He is scheduled to be sentenced on July 9 in a separate federal case involving more fossils taken from Bureau of Land Management land.

He must serve his 60 days at some point during the next 6 months.