Re: Fossils for Sale: Is It Good for Science?

[Glen Ledingham <glenled@yahoo.com>]

--- Mike Harrison <mikevharrison@yahoo.com> wrote:

> http://www.aaps.net/members_articles.html
>    
>   Fossils for Sale: Is It Good for Science?
> by Neal L. Larson


School kids really enjoy touchy-feely examination of
my personal fossils when I talk to them about
dinosaurs.  I don't know if I've inspired anybody to
become a paleontologist, but I don't think I've
discouraged anyone, and I do use concepts like
evolution and an old Earth.  Most of these fossils are
purchased rather than found, but I think they do some
public good.

If the concern is the availability of specimens for
study, why not start a registry under the auspices of,
say, the Society of Vertebrate Paleontologists or the
AAPS?  I suspect that anybody who's sufficiently
interested in paleo to purchase an expensive fossil
would be willing to make it available to qualified
paleontologists for short-term non-destructive
examination.  

Glen Ledingham