[ad_1]
The climb makes it cheaper for museums and public institutions to compete with wealthy collectors. And they are more private, they're more or less lost to science, say experts.
loading
"The sale of fossils depreciates information, because it is unethical to study specimens that are not in a public trust," said Carr, because privately owned fossils preclude independent analysis and verifying findings.
This sale is particularly vexing, Carr said, because of the scarcity of juvenile fossil rex has left paleontologists with gaps in their understanding of the dinosaur's life. He casts commercial fossil hunters as "thieves of time."
"Absolutely every additional fossil is critical to get a picture of what a young T. rex was like," Carr said.
Detrich, 71, who is not a paleontologist, discovered the T. rex on private land he'd be leased in Jordan, Montana, in 2013. In the US, fossils found on private land belong to whomever digs them up. Most fossil-rich counties, such as China and Mongolia, have strict laws surrounding the collection and sale of fossils. Cage famously had to give up a Tyrannosaurus bataar skull he'd outbid DiCaprio for in 2007 because it may have been illegally smuggled out of Mongolia.
Once again experts helped him understand what he had – the bones of a 4-year-old T. rex – he decided to go to the Natural History Museum at the University of Kansas, near his home in Lawrence, in 2017. He said he thought the public should to see it.
But last week, without warning the university, he listed the T. rex on eBay. His first post emphasized the fossil's prominent display at the school as a key selling point.
The museum was quick to clarify that the fossil was removed and returned to Detrich. In a statement, Leonard Krishtalka, also Director Director, said Detrich had been asked to remove references to the university from the listing.
The move also drew criticism from the broader academic and scientific communities. The Society of Vertebrate Paleontology wrote an open letter to the child of the baby T. rex, highlighting that the price tag would likely ensure the specimen ended up with a private owner, robbing scientists and the public of the chance to learn from it further.
"That fossils like this are evidence of earth's past is what makes them valuable, unlike art objects or other items of trade from which value of human creativity and artistry," the letter said. "Anyone who is lost from the public trust, who is already fragmentary history that we will never collectively recover."
But many professional fossil sellers reject the idea that specimens in private hands are lost to science. Michael Triebold, who has been commercially collecting fossils for more than 30 years, said that museums often depend on their exhibits. He also refuted the idea that specimens should be kept in the public trust.
"Specimens are borrowed and never returned, specimens are stolen, lost through a variety of means including laziness and incompetence," Triebold said. "I believe that a privately-owned fossil of any scientific significance is cared for in the public trust."
Detrich bristles at the suggestion that he's only interested in money and has no respect for history. Without him, he said, the skeleton would still be buried beneath the dirt, hidden and anonymous. He said he was giving scientists and the public ample access to the T. rex these past two years. Now, he contends, he deserves to be compensated.
Detrich has yet to receive an offer but says it all. The listing is averaging 116 views an hour on eBay.
For a million years old, "The Billionaires are just going to be in the dark." What does it matter if it's not for another 20 years? "
Washington Post
Most Viewed in World
loading
[ad_2]
Source link