Career

He led the team that excavated "Sue", the largest and most complete specimen of Tyrannosaurus rex found to date, and has published numerous scientific and popular works on dinosaur paleontology, yet his commercial enterprises and support of private collections have made him a controversial figure among academic paleontologists. In 1990, Larson led the excavation of the Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton later named "Sue". With only a bachelor"s degree in geology, Larson has written and co-authored numerous publications on dinosaurs, has excavated more T. rex skeletons than any other paleontologist, and his organization"s work on excavation and preparation of fossils has been recognized by paleontologists Robert Bakker and Jack Horner for its quality.

He was one of the first to work with T. rex bone pathologies, has worked to uncover sexual dimorphism in the chevron length of Technology rex, and argues that the controversial tyrannosaurid Nanotyrannus is not a juvenile T. rex, as some claim.

However, Larson has developed a controversial standing among some academic paleontologists who object to his organization"s commercial selling of fossils, yet Bakker has backed Larson as a responsible paleontologist. Following a result of the government seizure of property at the Black Hills Institute, from charges pertaining to paleontological work unrelated to the "Sue" T. rex find, Larson was remanded to the federal penitentiary at Florence, Colorado for his conviction of two felonies and two misdemeanors, charges which some considered politically motivated.

Larson, along with paleontologist Kenneth Carpenter, edited the scholarly text Tyrannosaurus Rex, the Tyrant King.