Feathered Tyrannosaur?????

["Steve Brusatte" <dinoland@mailcity.com>]

Hey,
What do you all make out of this newsreport, which I found on two newspaper 
sites?  It claims that a family in Montana found a "feathered tyrannosaur" near 
Choteau.  Of course, Bakker is in the middle of this too.

Steve

Here goes:

      STEVENSVILLE, Mont.  Officials of a Florida museum say Montana's Rocky 
Mountain
               front has yielded what they believe to be an unknown species of 
meat-eating dinosaur, a
               feathered raptor in the Tyrannosaurus rex family.
                     The yet-unnamed species of albertosaur, 65 million years 
old, was uncovered by a
               Stevensville family of hobbyist archaeologists who have explored 
a site near Choteau for a
               dozen years, Martin Shugar told the Missoulian newspaper. He is 
a physician and director of
               the Graves Museum of Archaeology and Natural History in Dania 
Beach, Fla.
                     The fossil is an "exceptional specimen" because the skull 
is nearly intact and the bones of
               the body are 75 percent complete, Shugar said.
                     Robert Bakker, a paleontologist and adjunct curator for 
the museum, called it "the cheetah
               of the Tyrannosaurus rex family" and said it "will become 
enshrined in the great textbooks of
               dinosaurs."
                     It is notable, he said, because it is more slender and 
delicate than other dinosaurs in the
               Tyrannosaurus rex family. Its breastbone and curved hand claws 
also are unusual, he said.
                     "It was an elegant animal. There are bits and pieces of 
animals like this in other collections
               but never a complete skeleton," Bakker said. "This find clears 
up a lot of mysteries."
                     The new raptor was unveiled at a news conference in 
Florida on Friday, the Missoulian
               reported.
                     The Stevensville family, Cliff and Sandy Linster and their 
seven children, uncovered the
               fossil  and several other types of dinosaurs  on ranch land 
outside Choteau. They have
               explored the site for years as a hobby and bought the site just 
last year.
                     They sold the albertosaur fossil to a millionaire investor 
who donated it to the Graves
               museum, they told the Missoulian. Then Cliff Linster retired 
from his construction job to
               devote full time to dinosaurs. The article did not name the 
investor or say what he paid for
               the fossil.
                     Cliff Linster's home telephone number is unlisted.
                     Shugar plans to make the albertosaur skeleton and other 
specimens from the Linsters' site
               the centerpiece of a dinosaur hall at the Graves museum.
                     Shugar and Bakker praised the Linsters' site as a 
monumental find and their amateur
               excavating abilities as outstanding.
                     "The Linsters' contributions to science are going to be 
huge," Shugar said. "Their finds are
               spectacular. They know what they are doing.

Okay, opinions?  Thoughts?  Have any of you heard anything?  Have any of you 
heard of this museum?  Hmmmm...

Steve
---
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Steve Brusatte-DINO LAND PALEONTOLOGY
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