RE: How do you feel about this?

["Allan Edels" <edels@msn.Com>]

Rita:

In order to avoid many of your worries, you should look for museum digs,
or those that are affiliated with museums in some way.  Volunteer work
at a local museum can put you in contact with various paleontologists
and paleontological groups.

I know that the Nature Conservancy owns what used to be Horner's Egg
Mountain site - it is a Grizzly Bear preserve.  They also run a dino dig
there (first lesson is what to do if you see a Grizzly).  You can dig up
dino eggshells and occasionally some dinosaur bones.  

By the way (BTW), the person who suggested the Google site was Patti
Kane-Vanni.  Patti is also an amateur.  She is an officer in the local
paleontological society, and has been involved with the local museum
(The Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia), and the University of
Pennsylvania.  Due to those affiliations, she was able to manage to work
on several important dinosaur digs, most notably the Egyptian expedition
(with Josh Smith and others) that dug up _Paralititan_.

Good luck,   

Allan Edels 


-----Original Message-----
From: owner-dinosaur@usc.edu [mailto:owner-dinosaur@usc.edu] On Behalf
Of FANTASYWRITER@sbcglobal.net
Sent: Friday, November 15, 2002 6:54 PM
To: dinosaur@usc.edu
Subject: How do you feel about this?

Of course I was delighted when someone here suggested 
I check Google to find digs that will accept the help 
of amateurs like me. It would be so wonderful to be 
there for a find -- let alone to dig one up myself! 
Gods! What heaven.

However, some of these tourist outfits that do this 
don't sound very professional to me. More than one 
actually sells fossils. Gods only know how these 
amateurs (like me) are ripping up the ground and 
ruining possible dig sites for the professionals. And 
how about record keeping? Do they even record where 
these fossils came from, how they were situated in the 
ground and all that?

How do you all feel about this? I know some of you are 
professionals. Do these amateur outfits damage future 
digs and what about selling fossils? Is that ethical? 
I'd like to think that if I actually found something, 
it would go to a museum where everyone could see and 
enjoy it. 

This bothers me. I'd love your opinions.

Rita