dinosaur storage vaults

[dyno77]

I recall an article years back that mentioned certain  fossil storage rooms are of limits to everyone ,even high level dinosaur experts....also in some documentary i recall experts walking by storage vaults and mentioning they are of limits...and that they didn't know what was in them...it was also mentioned in a report years back that certain storerooms of limits and the museum name wasn't noted......
with that i questioned why would that be and what would they contain to make them of limits to everyone.....
Could it be due to high levels radiation...?
Really rare and unique fossils ?
Private collections being temporarily stored there to be moved elsewhere later? something else entirely?
I do know that certain fossils such as  the dueling dinosaurs are currently stored in an undisclosed location ,but that is a separate of shoot topic from this....

[stargatedalek]

I can think of two reasons.

One; they are "awaiting description" by someone who has high levels of sway with the facility in question. Some of the more... shall we say "rockstar" paleontologists are known to sit on huge piles of bones and go looking for more instead of publish or reveal them. I would say such people are in desperate need of ghost writers to make their papers for them, but the facilities instead say the publicity of such persons is worth the fossils being essentially horded (albeit through, to be frank ineptitude, rather than a desire for exclusivity).

Two; they rent storage space to private collectors or companies to store fossils.

[Newt]

I've never heard of such a thing. Do you have any more substantial references?


Every large collection has a backlog of specimens that have not yet been prepared fully or at all. Preparation is very time and labor intensive, and many collectors, especially back in the heroic ages of paleontology, were over-enthusiastic and burdened museums with generations worth of work. But these collections are not "off limits" to researchers. A specimen hidden from all eyes is of no use to anyone.

[Papi-Anon]

I've never heard of such a thing. Do you have any more substantial references?


Every large collection has a backlog of specimens that have not yet been prepared fully or at all. Preparation is very time and labor intensive, and many collectors, especially back in the heroic ages of paleontology, were over-enthusiastic and burdened museums with generations worth of work. But these collections are not "off limits" to researchers. A specimen hidden from all eyes is of no use to anyone.

I remembered how just a few years back we found out about Simbakubwa from someone dusting off the specimen that had been unearthed years back to finally describe it. I think the same thing happened for the more recent Dilophosaurus finding that had a more complete headcrest.

[Halichoeres]

There's a handful of paleontologists who do hoard specimens in their labs, even though they do not own them per se. But most recognize that they have no hope of doing justice to every specimen they have access to and are happy to work with others to get them published and described. It isn't good for the longevity of important specimens to have them all on public display, nor would it be practical. But generally, researchers with a legitimate interest in them will be able to access them, aside from a few weirdly territorial narcissists.