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‘The New Extinction’ Review: Dinosaur Fossils, Big Money and the Battle Over Scientific Discovery
Director Kyle Lloyd Arpke follows paleontologist Thomas Carr and commercial fossil hunter Alan Detrich into a world where scientific discovery collides with money, ambition, and the desire to leave a mark.
What is it about finding the bones of a massive beast, long gone, that makes an adult light up like a child? In “The New Extinction,” a member of an excavation team acknowledges how thrilled his younger self would be by the work he does today. I understand the feeling. Director Kyle Lloyd Arpke captures that childlike excitement while examining the considerably less innocent business of what happens after a dinosaur comes out of the ground.
His 90-minute documentary follows paleontologist Thomas Carr, whose research faces relentless funding pressure, and commercial fossil hunter Alan Detrich, who deals in specimens that can command millions of dollars. For Carr, a juvenile T. rex offers an opportunity to advance scientific knowledge and sustain his research; for Detrich, a rare fossil also holds commercial potential.
The tension raises a compelling question: What happens when something that could expand our collective understanding becomes something only the exceptionally wealthy can afford?
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South Dakota, where the specimen known as Samson was discovered, provides a setting for that conflict. In the film's account, museums cannot afford the fossil, so the sales pitch moves toward a billionaire. Eventually, the specimen changes hands again. The bones remain the same; the people who control their future do not.
The region is part of a remarkable paleontological landscape. The Hell Creek Formation stretches across parts of Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wyoming, preserving fossils of Tyrannosaurus rex, Triceratops, and other prehistoric animals. South Dakota also gave us SUE, the famous T. rex discovered in 1990 and now housed at Chicago's Field Museum, a reminder of what public access to such discoveries can mean.
Arpke is especially effective at showing the expertise required to recognize what lies beneath this landscape. What looks like clumps of debris to an untrained eye holds meaning for these teams, who see what we cannot and help us understand a larger picture, one small piece at a time.
“In God's country,” as the terrain is described, the excavation grounds appear remote and undisturbed. When a team encounters a massive dinosaur, among the biggest they have seen in a long time, the film finds its own quiet suspense. Every movement becomes deliberate. Excitement gives way to the concentration required to avoid damaging something that has survived for millions of years.
These are determined, skilled, grown-up children — and I mean that with affection. They have retained the wonder while acquiring the patience and expertise to do something remarkable with it.
The documentary becomes more complicated when fossils leave the ground and enter the commercial market. Commercial hunters can recover valuable specimens that might otherwise remain buried or be lost to erosion. But discovering something extraordinary and ensuring that scientists can study it are not necessarily the same achievement.
In 2019, the University of Kansas Natural History Museum removed a juvenile tyrannosaur specimen owned by Detrich from public display after he listed it on eBay for $2.95 million, highlighting its museum connection in the sales pitch. The controversy illustrates how scientific access, public exhibition, and private ownership do not always coexist comfortably.
Arpke makes these competing interests clear, though the documentary is more absorbing when it follows the people involved than when it examines the broader implications of the fossil trade. Its most compelling moments emerge from the personal stories unfolding alongside the discoveries.
An excavator describes himself as being in his “fourth act,” conscious that his remaining time is limited. Leaving a mark matters to him. Beside the remains of animals preserved in the earth for millions of years, that admission carries considerable weight. These people are recovering evidence of vanished lives while considering what might remain of their own.
It is one of the film's most affecting observations. Fossil hunting is not simply about discovery, ownership, or financial reward. For some, it is also about accomplishing something meaningful while there is still time.
There is nothing fancy about Arpke's approach or the camera work of cinematographers Quinn Hester and Dana Shihadah, and that simplicity works in the film's favor. They allow the discoveries and the painstaking work of excavation to hold our attention without unnecessary visual flourishes. The material is fascinating enough on its own, and Arpke seems to understand that it needs little embellishment.
Still, the documentary's deliberate pace occasionally works against it. The excavation sequences are rewarding, but the film does not always sustain the dramatic momentum suggested by the competing interests of science and commerce.
For viewers fascinated by dinosaurs and the people who unearth them, “The New Extinction” offers plenty to hold their interest. Those less captivated by prehistoric bones may find its 90 minutes a little long. Yet Arpke reminds us that what emerges from the earth belongs to a history far greater than any individual who discovers, studies or purchases it.
The dinosaurs are long gone. The struggle over who gets to possess what they left behind is very much alive.
“An absorbing look at dinosaur discoveries and the fight over who gets to own history.”— Lapacazo Sandoval, AMNews Curtain Raiser
“The New Extinction” will have its world premiere at DOC NYC, with screenings November 15, 2026, at 4:50 p.m. and November 17 at 4:30 p.m. at Village East by Angelika in New York. The documentary will also be available online through the festival November 16–29. The November 15 screening is scheduled to include a Q&A with director Kyle Lloyd Arpke, producer Jessica Knap, and paleontologist Dr. Thomas Carr.
Film Credits
Documentary | 90 minutes
Director: Kyle Lloyd Arpke
Producer: Jessica Knap
Cinematographers: Quinn Hester (“Hundreds of Beavers”) and Dana Shihadah (“Pet Names”)
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