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Let's talk a little about Brazil For some years now I would like to talk a little about Brazil here at TFF, and I think the best opportunity has finally come! In fact, Brazil has not only banned exports, but also banned the commercialization of fossils even within the country, and Brazilians can not collect fossils from their own country, as they can take many years in prison! And with so much banning, even world-renowned Paleontologists (I'm a big fan of this great scientist) pterosaurs experts wrongfully get arrested by mistake: http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/ciencia/2013/12/1389270-paleontologo-brasileiro-que-foi-preso-processa-governo-em-r-1-milhao.shtml And currently a new law is being created in Brazil to make it even more criminal (with more years in prison), to have Brazilian fossils in a collection, to sell or to buy! Meanwhile, trillions of tons per year of Mesosaurus tenuidens fossils are being crushed and turned into dust by Petrobrás, in Irati, Paraná, Brazil, for the exploration of oil, gas and sulfur. The Brazilian government knows that in this process trillions of tons per year of Mesosaurus tenuidens fossils are being destroyed, but even so it grants authorization! The Santana Formation is located in the state of Ceará, Brazil. It is extremely rich in pterosaurs, dinosaurs, crocodiles, fish, insects and other fossils, mainly due to the clear condition of excellent conservation. An amazing beauty! But the State of Ceará is also the poorest in the whole of Brazil, even in many regions there is not even water to drink, many months without rain and also there is nothing to eat, being a population that in these regions lives in the most complete misery; On one side, a miserable population, without food and without water, literally living on an incalculable fortune of dinosaurs, pterosaurs, fish and many other fossils that are common in that region, that is, they do not represent any novelty for science, and often to have something to eat, some even challenge hard laws to sell a small fish fossilized at US $00,25! And meanwhile, on the other side of the rope, the Federal Police of Brazil seize fossils, and arrest people on charges of: Crime of usurpation of Union good and crime of qualified reception! And meanwhile, tons of fossils that are not unpublished, but rather common and old acquaintances of science are accumulating in the holds of the Brazilian Federal Police... And meanwhile, in Brazil, sensationalist newspaper articles publish the following: "Fossils of great scientific value seized in operation of the Federal Police..."! But as incredible as it may seem, the Brazilian government authorizes the commercial exploitation of rocks from the Santana Formation to make slabs of pavements and wall coverings, where the fossils will simply spray and disappear with the passage of time between rains and sun strong; And if you are a Brazilian, you can have your fish fossilized or any other beautiful fossil spoiling with the action of the time on the floor of your house or lining the walls and walls, after all, you bought the lage, paid for it and have invoice , but if you decide to cut the rock and fondly keep this fossil inside your house to protect it, you'll be arrest in the act! In this process, mountains of fossils are destroyed... In the cities of Assistência, Ipeúna and Piracicaba, in the State of São Paulo, Brazil, the fossil of the aquatic reptile Stereosternum Tumidum Cope is very abundant: But in these quarries, billions of tons of Stereosternum Tumidum Cope fossils are exploded and milled a year to be transformed into lime, used in agriculture and cement for civil construction. And all this with authorization from the Brazilian government! And if you visit one of these quarries and try to save from destruction one of these Stereosternum Tumidum Cope skeletons, you'll be arrest by the federal police in the act! I'm forgetting something to close this post with the golden key? Oh yeah! One of the most beautiful dinosaur footprint in the world is in the city of Araraquara, in the state of São Paulo, Brazil! But the footprints are dynamited and explored to make lages for the pavement of the City and that region! And now where are these footprints that have been saved from the dynamite? On the sidewalks of the whole city and the whole region, where people step on and the action of hot sun and rain, and the very friction of people trampling over, gradually destroys what time has taken millions of years to conserve! And before I forget, the "Museum in the open" was created, the only museum in the world that you can see the footprints and jump out and trampling on them the way you want! But if you want to get one of these footprints in the quarry and take it home and keep it with affection, you go to jail in flagrante by the Federal Police of Brazil! You are only allowed to put on the sidewalk of your house and destroy the footprints trampling over them with your own feet or with the tires of your car! Unfortunately unlike many first world countries, in Brazil the people are prevented from working honestly of what the earth gives! And if you want to work you can be arrested by the police. These harsh laws about the "fossiliferous heritage" do not favor the people, who, even in a miserable state, tread and live on top of the riches they can not reach... The sale of common fossils, already known by science, could bring billions of dollars a year to the Brazilian people. Paleontologists could be hired to inspect what could leave Brazil and unpublished materials that should remain... And the current harsh laws are also not at all favorable to Brazilian Paleontology, since the Brazilian Federal Police does not have the resources to watch over the Santana Formation, which is so huge that it borders on three Brazilian states: Ceará, Piauí and Pernambuco . And with the harsh current laws, only the stone flake remain for Brazilian paleontologists, while the complete fossils of scientific interest go to private collections around the world. Like this rare skull of Pterosaur Ludodactylus sibbicki that was auctioned in Paris: I could give hundreds more examples, but I will limit myself to just giving this example of the rarest pterosaur Anhanguera santanae that was sold on our favorite auction site for 200 Thousand Dollars! And in the midst of this crossfire, as I mentioned earlier, even internationally renowned paleontologists are arrested by mistake... People can not buy, people can not sell, otherwise they can be arrested for several years by the Federal Police. Paleontologists do not have the money to carry out scientific expeditions within their own country ... The harsh laws are not protecting the fossils, they are not protecting their people and they are not protecting the Brazilian Paleontology either. I wonder who this is benefiting... If you did not know the reality of the Brazilian Warrior People and their spectacular fossils, I hope this post was informative!