In the deserts of the American west paleontologists compete against time, erosion, and lack of funding in search of new dinosaur specimens, but they’re not alone in this race against time. Commercial collectors armed with more funds dig at an accelerated speed to uncover fossils to sell to the highest bidder and out of reach of the paleontologists.

 

THE NEW EXTINCTION covers the topic from all sides of the issue, while posing a question for the viewing public: will we value our planet’s historical resources as a means to live or a means to understand our place in the annals of time?

Our crew follows a paleontologist racing to publish his latest research. We see his work in museum collection labs, classrooms, conferences, home office and finally into the beautiful prairies and rock formations of the American West. We also follow his antithesis, a commercial collector as he organizes his latest sale. We capture the lifestyle of these individuals on their excavations while seeking to understand how it all connects.