Re: Dinosaur eggs

["Taylor,Rod;=8728883" <RODT@kean.ucs.mun.ca>]

On Mon, 23 Jan 1995, Mickey Rowe wrote:

> 
> tobin@cshl.org (Henry Tobin) writes:
> 
> > 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.
> 
> 
> --
> Mickey Rowe     (rowe@lepomis.psych.upenn.edu)
> 


Agreed.  Strongly.  While not quite a professional paleontologist (I am, 
however, a grad student...), I agree that the notion of selling specimens 
to private collectors takes from the overall bank of potential 
knowledge.  Once a specimen goes to a collector, it is usually out of the 
grasp of paleontologists.

On the other hand, I'm not speaking out against personal collections 
(which would be rather hypocritical, in my case).  It's just something 
that has to be done responsibly, not by buying them from sellers who 
collect for profit, without regard for the potential knowledge contained 
within the material they're selling.

Just another opinion...


Rod Taylor
Earth Sciences Dept.
Memorial University of Newfoundland