Fossil Collecting Ethics I
Do you have any fossils in your rock collection? What kind? Do you have a trilobite or a fossilized clam shell? Maybe an insect in amber or some fossilized shark teeth? Or do you have something special?
Fossils are a hot item these days. It is considered cool in some circles to have a fossil as a decoration in your home or office. But where do these people get the fossils that they are using as decorations? They don't go out into the field and collect them, they buy them.
Gem and mineral shows can be found all over, you can probably find at least one somewhere in the U. S. and other countries every day of the year. These shows used to just feature rocks and precious and semi-precious stones, but fossils have become big business at gem and mineral shows recently. When they first began appearing, it was mostly as isolated bones and teeth that a rock hound had found while prospecting for gems and minerals. But as the money got bigger so did the fossils. Now, it is common to find complete specimens of rare fish, rare birds, and even dinosaurs that sell for thousands, even millions of dollars.
What does this mean to the average person? It means that although you can buy a tooth of the extinct shark Carcharodon megalodon for $50 to $100, there are a lot of fossils being sold that you won't see in your local museum.
Do you remember the fuss made over Sue the T. rex? Sue was found by a commercial fossil collection company that thought it had permission from the land owner to dig and collect the Tyrannosaur, but it turned out that someone else owned the land. A big legal battle ensued to determine who really owned Sue.
Sue continued to make headlines when she was auctioned by Sotheby's in October 1997 for $8.36 million. Paleontologists everywhere held their breath during the auction. Who would get Sue? Would she end up in a private collection, never to be seen or studied again? T. rex fans let out a cheer when it was announced that the winning bid was from the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago. Sue would still be available to her admirers.
But at what cost? Although the money to buy Sue was raised from outside donations, and the Field Museum did not have to break the bank to pay for her, this has paleontologists worried. If land owners believe that they can make a lot of money by selling fossils found on their land to private collectors, what incentive do they have to donate the fossils to a museum? New species of dinosaurs and other extinct animals may go undiscovered as their fossils leave the country and disappear into the home of wealthy private collectors, never to be seen or studied by paleontologists.
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