Private Collectors Changing Paleontology

[Scylla]

Emerging cooperation between the richest collectors and academics. Oh, and drool worthy fossils too.

 

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/2019/09/dinosaur-fossils-collector-feature/

[dinosaur man]

This is bad for science they are loosing specimens that could change are thinking of dinosaurs I heard that not to long ago a Tarbosaurus skull was illegally smuggled out of Mongolia and then sold at a auction after about a month the Mongolian government found where the skull was and brought it back to Mongolia 

[Auspex]

2 hours ago, dinosaur man said:

This is bad for science they are loosing specimens that could change are thinking of dinosaurs I heard that not to long ago a Tarbosaurus skull was illegally smuggled out of Mongolia and then sold at a auction after about a month the Mongolian government found where the skull was and brought it back to Mongolia 

Overall, the level of cooperation between private collectors and professional paleontologists is increasing.
It's only when the some rich guy buys a high-profile specimen that it makes the news. This gives the inaccurate impression that there is some big rivalry between collectors and professionals. In practice, both can usually be accommodated, and each can benefit from the other.

 

See here: LINK

[JohnJ]

4 hours ago, Auspex said:

Overall, the level of cooperation between private collectors and professional paleontologists is increasing.
It's only when the some rich guy buys a high-profile specimen that it makes the news. This gives the inaccurate impression that there is some big rivalry between collectors and professionals. In practice, both can usually be accommodated, and each can benefit from the other.

 

See here: LINK

 

Well said, Chas.

[HamptonsDoc]

On 9/21/2019 at 10:32 AM, dinosaur man said:

This is bad for science they are loosing specimens that could change are thinking of dinosaurs

Completely untrue and the article even touches on this. In the US, BLM fossils are sitting out in the open weathering away to dust since they can only be collected by a few academics who cannot afford to spend the time needed to collect everything on the millions of acres of protected land BLM controls. Commercial guys are collecting on private land and these fossils would also be left to erode away to nothing if not collected. Academic paleontology is simply not big enough to collect everything available. Commercial/private paleontology sparks the interest in younger generations which in turn creates more academics.  Some private collectors loan or donate specimens to be studied or displayed to science. We hear anecdotally of a Fossil, such as the Tarbosaur you mentioned, that’s fought over between science and the private sector in the news which makes it seem as though it’s a bigger issue than it is.  

 

Ps- the authors of this article were in Tucson looking for high end collectors to interview.