Re: private collecting

[Stephen Okay <sokay@snm.com>]

y

On Sat, 4 Nov 1995, David Brez Carlisle wrote:

[...]
>       Sure, a museum can buy bones for less than it would take
> to mount an expedition to collect them, but then they are out
> of context.
> 

Additionally, fossil collecting,ike other forms of collectible selling,
is market-driven. This means that one will only be able to obtain those 
specimens that are in demand,  i.e. those that are "popular" and 
well-known amongst the public. Whats the point of paying money for 
something you already know a lot about. Granted, each new T. rex tooth 
does add something to the existing knowledge base, but if you already 
have 100,000 of them, what can you really say about # 100,001?
Collecting not only removes the context of the specimen, but tends to 
eliminate from collection and preservation those specimens which the 
market is not interested in, but which may be of great scientific value. 
So where are your great "savings" to scientific and scholastic institutes?
In order to find out anything new or support /refute current ideas about 
specimens in hand, you still have to mount massive investigative 
expeditions to fill in the holes "the market" didn't cover.


----Steve