That's not the point of the story. It's actually about the T-Rex named Sue that was one of the first dinosaur fossils to be auctioned at an insane price, and kickstarted the whole fossil-hunting-for-money industry.
Also happens to be the most complete skeleton discovered of the most iconic dinosaur. The price was expected to be considerably above the average.
I feel pretty bad for the paleontologists who got screwed in the end after doing all of the work.
Fossil hunting for money could be a good thing or a bad thing. On the one hand, there will be a lot more fossil-hunting, meaning more fossils will be found. But on the other, commercial hunters are likely to be much less careful with fossils than scientists would be.
Anyone know how the tradeoffs work out?
I expect better headlines from NPR. It seems no news organization is free from enticing readers these days.