Perhaps the best dinosaur fossil hardly anyone has been able to see yet.

[Justin_]

From today's Guardian. Another story about legal wrangles of ownership hindering scientific progress.
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2019/jul/17/montana-fossilized-dueling-dinosaurs-skeletons-dino-cowboy

[suspsy]

I have zero sympathy for private fossil hunters who claim to care about science, yet try to sell their finds to museums for exorbitant fees. As if there was a single museum in the world that could afford to shell out $9 million US for a fossil specimen whose value has been greatly diminished by the manner in which it was dug up.

[stargatedalek]

I can at least understand things like fossil smuggling in China. People are desperate and that money could go a long ways. But already fairly well off Americans demanding outrageous amounts because they know they can really rubs me the wrong way, if anything even moreso because situations like the former are so common.

This thing should have been confiscated by the government years ago.

[SBell]

They tried to sell this everywhere. For $9M.

Sue was the worst thing to ever happen to fossils. Turned them into commodities instead of pieces of natural history.

[brontosauruschuck]

I would like to start a GoFundMe and buy the fossils for The Black Hills Institute.

[Flaffy]

I would like to start a GoFundMe and buy the fossils for The Black Hills Institute.

And in the process of doing so, continuing the vicious cycle of greedy pieces of sh*t attempting to sell scientifically important fossil specimens for an outrageous price. And when the fossil doesn't sell, these people pull a hissy fit and prevent any palaeontologists from ever studying the fossil, by breaking it apart and selling parts for cheap, thus removing a lot scientific value the piece could've potentially had.

[brontosauruschuck]

Well in that case let's just acquire it for science through nefarious measures. Muuuu ah ah ah ah ah!

[SBell]

Unless things changed, BHI is holding the specimen. They're definitely the ones that did the digging.

[ItsTwentyBelow]

This thing should have been confiscated by the government years ago.

On what grounds would the US government be able to confiscate it? This fossil was found on private property, so it's not so simple.

I don't support collectors keeping important finds away from professionals (it can make my job a nightmare), but it's up to the landowner. In a perfect world, a museum or university would be involved from the get-go each time there is a find like this. But you can't force people to do that.

The Wenas Creek Mammoth, found in Washington state, is an example of such a happy ending story. Here, the landowners realized they'd hit a big bone with their backhoe and immediately called Central Washington University. They ran a field school there for the next five years. I've helped analyze some of this specimen as part of my graduate school career at CWU and have met the landowners, who are crazy proactive about future research of the mammoth and have set up a little museum and a classroom at the dig site in Selah, WA, where they have an annual event every October.

Since the mammoth belongs to them, the bones are returned to the landowners after we are done with analysis, and they have a storage unit to keep them in. They are making the specimen available for research.

[stargatedalek]

This thing should have been confiscated by the government years ago.

On what grounds would the US government be able to confiscate it? This fossil was found on private property, so it's not so simple.

I don't support collectors keeping important finds away from professionals (it can make my job a nightmare), but it's up to the landowner. In a perfect world, a museum or university would be involved from the get-go each time there is a find like this. But you can't force people to do that.

Canada does, and from what I recall some states do as well. This is because of of lax legislation, many territories have laws prohibiting the private collection of fossils or artifacts that are considered scientifically or historically significant.

[Jose S.M.]

Here in Costa Rica any archeological artifact found is property of the state and can be confiscated. I don't know about fossils but I can imagine is the same.

[Halichoeres]

In general, individual property rights in the U.S. are probably too sacrosanct. This is just one symptom of that fetish for land ownership.

[suspsy]

This thing should have been confiscated by the government years ago.

On what grounds would the US government be able to confiscate it? This fossil was found on private property, so it's not so simple.

I don't support collectors keeping important finds away from professionals (it can make my job a nightmare), but it's up to the landowner. In a perfect world, a museum or university would be involved from the get-go each time there is a find like this. But you can't force people to do that.

Canada does, and from what I recall some states do as well. This is because of of lax legislation, many territories have laws prohibiting the private collection of fossils or artifacts that are considered scientifically or historically significant.

Yes, I'm very grateful that Canada has such measures in place. It would be wonderful if the US adopted similar ones, but I'd faint from shock if that ever happened. Never underestimate human greed.

[Vidusaurus]

This thing should have been confiscated by the government years ago.

On what grounds would the US government be able to confiscate it? This fossil was found on private property, so it's not so simple.

I don't support collectors keeping important finds away from professionals (it can make my job a nightmare), but it's up to the landowner. In a perfect world, a museum or university would be involved from the get-go each time there is a find like this. But you can't force people to do that.

The Wenas Creek Mammoth, found in Washington state, is an example of such a happy ending story. Here, the landowners realized they'd hit a big bone with their backhoe and immediately called Central Washington University. They ran a field school there for the next five years. I've helped analyze some of this specimen as part of my graduate school career at CWU and have met the landowners, who are crazy proactive about future research of the mammoth and have set up a little museum and a classroom at the dig site in Selah, WA, where they have an annual event every October.

Since the mammoth belongs to them, the bones are returned to the landowners after we are done with analysis, and they have a storage unit to keep them in. They are making the specimen available for research.

Absolutely you can and should be able to confiscate scientific finds, especially potentially significant ones. America is pretty much the only place that has such a fetish for "muh property rights" when it comes to situations like this, and the whole world is laughing at them.

[Neosodon]

Government in the U.S is often villified. If the government just went in and took finds from owners who doug them up on their own land that would cause allot of outrage. So I doubt it will happen any time soon. But keeping the world ignorant of a piece of incredible natural history in a futile attempt to make a few more dollers. In such cases as this I would love to see things get dirty.

[Dinoguy2]

I would like to start a GoFundMe and buy the fossils for The Black Hills Institute.

Uh... The Black Hills "institute" is a fossil selling business. It belongs in a real scientific institution, not a dealership showroom that exists to sell as many casts of it as possible.