Re: Dinosaur eggs

[Flyinggoat@aol.com]

> > I have seen advertisements of dinosaur eggs for sale.
> 
> Making fossils a
> commodity has a tendency to lead to practices which are destructive of
> the fossils and the information obtainable from them.  Much of the
> scientific value of a fossil is lost as soon as it's taken out of the
> ground unless appropriate references are kept with it.  People hoping
> only to turn a profit from fossils are less likely to care about such
> things, and thus are a hindrance to the sharing of information we'd
> all like to have.

I have seen dinosaur eggs in a local gem shop.  I know enough from seeing
others in museum collections that these are real dinosaur eggs.  They appear
to be documented by the University of China  (Beijing, I think, hard to spot
since the eggs are sitting on the documentation in the display case.)   They
look to be slightly larger than a softball and very round, but flattened on
one side slightly
Now,
#1  is the documentation authentic?  How should I know?
#2  if it is authentic, were they perhaps stolen from the school in question,
or from an institution that dealt with the school and had recieved the eggs
from the school?  How should I know?
#3  If it is authentic and they weren't stolen from any school, were they put
on the blackmarket in China by someone at the school in question?   Does the
school support this trade?  How does one check?
#4  If the eggs weren't stolen, are authentic, and really did come from the
University of Beijing,  and for whatever reason are sitting in a gem shop in
Mountain View, Calif (which also has a small collection of copriolites(sp?)
(dino doodoo) would it still be politically correct in purchasing them?  How
does one check on these things? 

I, myself, have no need for dinosaur eggs.

   I recall a post from last year on some specimens being stolen out of a
university last year, unfortunatly this is the only post I've seen on
something probably going on all the time.  Now I know that in the world of
antiquities, there are several magazines that specialize in collecting
antiquities, and frequently I seereports of stolen collections or thieves
taking things on a site.  The articles warn collectors that the items would
soon appear on the black market and to watch out for them.   Several museum
pieces have been recovered this way because a private collector knew enough
about what he was looking at to notify someone in authority to recover the
item.
   Why don't more institutions that suffer the fossil theft problem report
them here?  Here you have the same interested private collector who is much
more likely to identify a dinosaur egg, or trilobyte than most, who could be
aware of the theft and report it to SOMEBODY, who could check.   Myself, I
think it's a good idea.


Betty Cunningham(Flyinggoat@aol.com)