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dinosaur man

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@Monica Yes, there are just so many fossils here that now only the best material is actually collected. This usually means anything articulated or reasonably complete. Isolated bones like the ones in my pictures are all pretty much ignored, which is sad, as yes they will inevitably just erode away. I think there needs to be a better system personally. It doesn't make sense to just let these great fossils be destroyed by the elements. But if collecting was allowed how could it be regulated to make sure only expendable material was taken? And how would you stop people then selling those bones for a profit? It's a hard situation, you want to save the fossils, but letting collectors take things opens up a bunch of other issues as well.” @Paleoworld-101 

 

I have a idea for this. What if they would have a setup of some sort at the entrance of the park where the park staff would check to see if you have collected any valuable specimens. If not you would have legal ownership over the fossil, they would do this to teach people about there fossil recourse and so the fossils would not sit there and erode away over time since they would be able to bring some fossils home and learn about them. Keeping the good specimens to the Palaeontologist but the other fossils that are no use to the Palaeontologist to the guest preventing these fossils to erode away and keeping all Paleontological and geological recourses and history. This is just something I was thinking after reading this in @Paleoworld-101s topic probably won’t happen though.

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Several problems I can think of.

 

First, the park protects not just an extinct ecosystem but an extant one. If collecting is allowed, you'll have likely thousands of people a year trampling the land and destroying the ecosystem. Sure there are plenty of visitors today, but the number would skyrocket if collecting was allowed.

 

Second, what paleontologist would want to sit around all day evaluating the scientific importance of the hundreds of bone fragments picked up that day? Probably not many. Such a procedure is used at some quarries, I believe Solnhofen is one. But they make money, especially from the rare specimens they confiscate, while the park would not.

 

Third, once you allow collecting of any kind, it becomes much easier to smuggle important specimens from the park. The area is huge, so I could presumably find a rare fossil and sneak off easily. How can the authorities then prove at a later date that paleontologist X didn't say I could keep the fossil? If paleontologist X sees hundreds or thousands of specimens a day, he won't remember all of them.

 

The only way I could see this happening was if collecting was only allowed a few times a year, if that, and only in a small area. But the logistics of that would be nightmarish with little upside for the park to do so.

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No park staff would have the legal authority to override the provincial law that makes vertebrate fossils the property of the province, period. 

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...How to Philosophize with a Hammer

 

 

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How many people would visit Dinosaur Provincial Park if there were no dinosaur bones to be seen?  How long would it take for the area to be cleared if people could remove everything?  How would any of the information paleontologists determine while collecting "important specimens" (exact stratigraphy, associated fossils and sedimentology that reveal the environment the animal lived in) be captured if you could remove the fossil and only later have a park ranger confiscate it?

 

Here is a better plan:

1. Work hard to do very well in school.

2. Get training to have a well paying career.

3. Get a good paying job.

4. Save your money.

5. When you can afford it, use your money on pay to dig sites, or lease or buy property where dinosaurs may be collected.

 

We have members who have done this with great success.  Emulate them.  Don't pin your hopes on somehow being allowed to pillage provincial parks.

 

Don

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Sorry I was just wondering, I really like fossils from this area.

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