I gather that DePalma’s ability to control the site and leverage the popular press does not sit well with others in the field, but he has been burned twice in this cut throat world and he seems to be determined to avoid another burn. He knows someone from here in Kansas who was attacked by the “professionals” and in the end, chose to put his find on the open market. It got ugly and this one might end up the same way.
Those kinds of episodes are so common in paleontology that they seem intrinsic to the profession, or at least intrinsic to those who practice it.