News: Worries over display of Archaeopteryx No. 10

[bh480@scn.org]

From: Ben Creisler bh480@scn.org

In case this news story has not been mentioned yet:
http://rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN
_15_4282668,00.html

Museum draws flak over display
Critics fear private facility can't properly care for rare 
fossil
By Jim Erickson, Rocky Mountain News 
December 2, 2005
A plan to display one of the world's best-preserved 
specimens of Archaeopteryx - the earliest known birdlike 
animal - in a small, privately owned Wyoming museum is 
drawing fire from paleontologists. 
Some critics say the Wyoming Dinosaur Center in 
Thermopolis lacks an adequate security system as well as 
the skilled workers needed to properly care for the 
precious 150 million-year-old fossil. 

Others say there's no guarantee that the nearly complete 
skeleton will be preserved for posterity or be available 
for future study. 

"There's nothing preventing it from being sold again in 
the future and then being removed from the scientific 
arena," said Mark Goodwin, assistant director of the 
Museum of Paleontology at the University of California, 
Berkeley. 

"In the eyes of professional paleontologists, it's not a 
proper repository," Goodwin said. 

Only 10 of the feathered Archaeopteryx (ark-ee-op-tur-ix) 
specimens have been found. The Thermopolis fossil comes 
from limestone deposits in Bavaria, Germany. 

The magpie-size skeleton is described in today's edition 
of the journal Science. Features in its skull and feet add 
new evidence to the widely held idea that birds descended 
from carnivorous dinosaurs. 

The study's three authors include Burkhard Pohl, a former 
veterinarian who founded the Wyoming Dinosaur Center in 
1995. The center's 12,000-square-foot exhibition area has 
more than 200 displays, including about two dozen full-
size mounted dinosaur skeletons. 

Pohl brokered the deal that will bring the prized fossil 
to Thermopolis in a few months. 

The widow of a Swedish collector found the fossil after 
her husband died in the late 1970s, Pohl said Thursday in 
an e-mail message. Pohl located a donor willing to buy the 
limestone slab and put it on permanent display in 
Thermopolis. 

Pohl said Goodwin's concerns about the fossil's future are 
misplaced because the sale agreement includes a guarantee 
that the Archaeopteryx will remain in a museum forever. 

"In the event that the Wyoming Dinosaur Center should 
cease to exist, it is agreed that the specimen will be 
placed in another public collection," Pohl wrote. 

It took more than a year to seal the deal, and the new 
owner wishes to remain anonymous, said Scott Hartman, the 
center's science director. 

The Wyoming Dinosaur Center is not revealing the selling 
price, but a less-impressive Archaeopteryx fossil sold for 
$1.3 million in 1999, according to Science. 

Ken Carpenter, a paleontologist at the Denver Museum of 
Nature & Science, said he knows Pohl and has visited the 
Thermopolis center. 

"The people in Thermopolis basically are gobbling it up 
because it gives tourists another reason to come to 
Thermopolis," Carpenter said of the center. The north-
central Wyoming town, population 3,200, is best known for 
its hot springs. 

"I guess my only concern with the specimen going to 
Thermopolis is that the security is not all that great," 
Carpenter said. "And the chances of it being stolen, I 
think, are very high." 

Hartman said the center plans to "completely overhaul" its 
security system before the Archaeopteryx goes on display. 

"There are valid concerns that need to be addressed," he 
said. "We're going to do our best to address these 
concerns, and I hope our colleagues will see that." 

Berkeley's Goodwin, for one, remains skeptical. 

"There's a community of people who ride the coattails of 
paleontology for profit," he said. "And that definitely 
applies to Pohl."