06/24/09

GREAT FALLS, Mont. (AP) _ Renowned dinosaur hunter and convicted
fossil thief Nathan Murphy was sentenced Wednesday to three years
on probation, of which four months must be spent in a prerelease
center.

U.S. District Judge Sam Haddon, in Great Falls, also ordered
Murphy to pay $17,325 in restitution.

Murphy was sentenced for stealing 13 dinosaur bones from central
Montana's Hell Creek badlands in 2006. He pleaded guilty in April
to theft of government property.

The 51-year-old self-taught paleontologist rose to fame on his
discovery of the world's best-preserved fossil, Leonardo, in 2000.

Murphy was sentenced last month to 60 days in jail on a separate
state count involving a stolen raptor fossil.

(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
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