Re: "Epic carving found in Vero "

[frank bliss <frank@blissnet.com>]

Delurking for the obvious.

Dan, I can see in my minds eye, the other part of the bone missing  
from the one with the mammoth that said" Will Carve for Food".   
Starving artists always.

On a more serious note...

It is a wonderful find and I congratulate the amateur hunter for not  
selling the thing because in all likely hood, he doesn't own it  
anyway.  I don't know the whole story so I have to assume he did the  
right things but.......

I have to take this moment to point out yet another very significant  
contribution to science by amateurs.  I wonder who owned the beach he  
searched on or so it goes.....I don't get the double standard.   
Vertebrate fossil material taken from public land (or someone else's)  
in his own collection for years.....and all that.  There seems to be  
no outcry here.  I'm very confused and potentially grumpy at that  
apparent double standard.  Did I miss something here?

Don't get me wrong, I believe he did a good thing and should get  
praise from both the archeological community and the paleontologic  
community.  Though I wouldn't have found it, I won't go on federal/ 
state/indian land for anything. There could be a complete  
Pachycephalosaur ten feet over the line on one of the BLM in holdings  
on my ranch.  I'll never find it.  Obviously, I believe some rule are  
meant to be broken as in despite a high probability he was collecting  
off public land, he should not be persecuted and probably won't be.   
Good.  Perhaps it's not illegal to collect debris washed up by the  
tide even if it's a fossil.  My private beach here along the paleo- 
channel of a Hell Creek River is 65 million years older and the rules  
are different just across that private land/public land imaginary line.

Frank (Rooster)Bliss
Weston, Wyoming
www.wyomingdinosaurs.com


On Jun 3, 2009, at 5:55 PM, Danvarner@aol.com wrote:

> In a message dated 6/3/2009 6:53:26 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
> MKIRKALDY@aol.com writes:
>
> << Spotlighting some of Dan Varner's early, lost work:  >>
>
> The pay was a lot better back in those days,  too!