Chinese fossils 'for sale' (Re: The Lake Psittacosaurs)

["Thomas R. Holtz, Jr." <th81@umail.umd.edu>]

At 12:55 AM 6/25/98 -0700, Tracy Ford wrote:

>I have seen, photographed, video taped and drawn 3 specimens from THE
>LAKE. One had a really good skull with premaxillary fangs, but now feet
>and tail was missing. The others weren't that well preserved. Some did
>have skin impressions. The first specimen I noted that and asked the
>'owner' of it and he said now, but the last one he said that it that one
>had skin impressions, the same as the first. 

Cool.

>Never, at least
>these specimens. They were sold by a dealer who reasured me that he got
>them legally, from a Museum in China (which shall remain nameless).

Here is the news from Professor Ji: there is no such thing as a fossil from
Liaoning which was obtained legally.  By law, they cannot be sold.  The
dealer might not be aware of this (I realize stuff goes through several
hands before it reaches these shores), but in point of (legal) fact any
Liaoning specimen in private hands anywhere outside China was illegally
obtained.

Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.
Vertebrate Paleontologist     Webpage: http://www.geol.umd.edu
Dept. of Geology              Email:th81@umail.umd.edu
University of Maryland        Phone:301-405-4084
College Park, MD  20742       Fax:  301-314-9661