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So I briefly spoke to a palaeontologist during a Q&A session he held a while ago on his Instagram page, and I asked him what his favourite fossil was that he had or currently owned. His responses were essentially that he believes that fossil collecting is unethical because it can hinder science by hiding important finds away in private collections and prevent the public from seeing some specimens because museums sometimes cannot pay the exorbitant prices that the market creates. I’d like to hear your opinions on this issue, since this forum is essentially full of collectors. As a collector, I’m somewhere in the middle of, “nothing for anyone but scientists” and, “it’s fair game”. Especially when you factor in things like private land, should the government be able to rip Dino bones out of someone’s property that someone essentially unknowingly paid for when obtaining said land?

Today was not only a leap day but it was the 10th anniversary of the Gateway Science Museum. We were invited to take part in the festivities and provide an activity. We decided to bring some fossils that folks might not associate with leaping or jumping. We tied the leaping theme together with our fossils and talked sharks, whales, avian dinos, non-avian dinos, and marine mammals. The Cetaceans stole the show but people were digging the breaching sharks too. I was often busy with double duty, I’m a supervisor at the Gateway, so Carter took the lead. He absolutely nailed it. Proud dad today watching my kiddo be the MAN for Fossils on Wheels. Fun day and a great day for Carter. Good job kiddo.

We are having a blast talking shark evolution at the Gateway Science Museum. There are several activities including shark tooth ID, a science experiment involving buoyancy and our evolution station. We call it the Shark Takeover and we do it several times a year. This time we have the microscope out and are showing off our early shark micros !!!! So so much fun

I found this at the beach. Do you think it's a human radius bone or animal bone? I grabbed it in the waves on the east coast of Fl today. It perfectly fits from my elbow to wrist.

mighthavebeensaidbeforeandperhapsmoreleoquently,butthisisinFrench this being the article "Fossiles du Maroc : La relation incestueuse des scientifiques et des trafiquants" The author has fairly recently edited a many-paged volume(600+pages) on the fossil vertebrates of Morocco,which I believe might constitute a state-of-the-art book.I couldn't find a TOC online, but there's at least a chapter on placoderms by Rucklin/Clement(diacritics omitted) ->page ads fairly restrained<- related: morogeoconservaPlan cours André CHARRIERE.pdf the conclusion("a"conclusion?): "Bilan : patrimoine paléontologique d’intérêt mondial ; essentiel des grands bouleversements paléoenvironnementaux, paléoclimatiques et tectoniques mondiaux sont enregistrés dans le géopatrimoine marocain." freely paraphrased: Moroccan geoheritage sites contain a wealth of information on paleoclimate,tectonics,and paleoecology

Hi all, Figured this would be the best place to share this. So, there is a channel on YouTube that is called PBS Eons. LINK They post videos regularly, and each one presents a random topic in paleontology. They explain the info in that topic in detail, but in a way that is still easy to understand for early amateurs of the science. This has led them to post videos about namely: the role of conodont fossils in geology, turtle shell evolution, the mystery of the "Devil's corkscrews", how the first multicellular organism appeared, the PETM, and countless more. Every time you learn something new on paleontology, so if you love this awesome science as much as me I definitely recommend that you go take a look and subscribe to their channel! Well recently they made a 3-part collaboration video with PBS Spacetime and It's Okay To Be Smart which are two other nice YouTube channels that tackle more of science's mysteries. In this collab all 3 channels talk about one of our biggest questions: How did life first appear on Earth? All 3 videos are fantastic (IMO). They beautifully managed to merge physics, chemistry, biology and paleontology together in order to attempt to find out the origin of life itself. Very complicated and detailed, yet easy to understand. So yeah, definitely a must-see in my opinion! Here are the 3 videos: PBS Eons: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pk213XSSktQ (This one is really about the biology and paleontology of the earliest lifeform) PBS Spacetime: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GcfLZSL7YGw (This one explains how it is possible for life to actually exist/how it works in the universe) It's Okay To Be Smart: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_uAJY1mqtw4 (This one aims to find out how life first came to be) The 3 videos are each interesting on their own, but watching them together is what really makes them cool. So, if you have nothing planned for the next 45 minutes, then now you know what to do! Warning: there is A LOT of info to get your head wrapped around, especially if you are not very well-versed in deep science! But it is still worth the effort of trying to understand, because you will learn so much from it. I hope you will enjoy these videos as much as I did! Happy learning, Max

Below is an interesting paper that is now open access. T. C. Chamberlin, "Studies for Students: The Method of Multiple Working Hypotheses," The Journal of Geology 5, no. 8 (Nov. - Dec., 1897): 837-848. https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/607980 Yours, Paul H. "The past is never dead. It's not even past." William Faulkner, Act 1, Scene III, Requiem for a Nun (1951)

The Rio Puerco Valley was my introduction to fossils. For many years now, I have scoured its Late Cretaceous shales and sandstones in search of ammonites. Somewhere along the way, my fascination with the ornament grew into an investigation of its enviornment. Last week at the New Mexico Geologic Society's Spring meeting (program), I made my first venture into the world of paleontological science. With the help of Dr. Spencer Lucas of the New Mexico Museum of Natural History, I presented a poster/abstract (Foley & Lucas 2017.pdf) exhibiting my ideas. I received some criticism for incorporating ammonite ornament and caught some grief for including a labeled map...otherwise, this was an amazing learning experience and I am ready to move forward. Back to the rocks!...I have a paper to write. Blue Hill Shale: Spathites puercoensis: Prionocyclys hyatti: Coilopoceras springeri: