Last month it was announced that a newly discovered skeleton of the iconic dinosaur Stegosaurus would be up for auction, with an expected sale price of about $6m (£4.7m). In many countries (or parts of them), it is entirely legal to dig up, and buy or sell fossils – including exporting them. However, most palaeontologists consider these to be scientific objects and as such worthy of protection, and would understandably prefer to see them not with private collectors but in museums, where they would be protected and available for study.
Although public collections do buy fossils when they can afford them (the Duelling Dinosaurs specimen recently went to North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences after a charity fundraising campaign), most of them are simply unaffordable. Museums cannot spend millions on every dinosaur skull that comes up for auction, which means that scientifically important fossils appear briefly on the auction house website and in the media and then vanish into a collector’s house, never to be seen again. And there are many that don’t even make it to public auction.
But does science have the right to claim a monopoly on such finds? Should countries or regions change their laws to reflect this? Surely private landowners have the rights to things found on their property?
No matter your opinions on private v public ownership, it’s impossible to ignore the effect of the fossil trade as it inevitably encourages illegal excavation and export from countries that have banned such sales. The media attention given to each new high-ticket skeleton that goes on sale, and TV shows such as Dino Hunters, which focus on the dollar value of each bone found have only added fuel to the fire. There are ethical private collectors who donate material to museums, or offer them at discounted prices and work with them – but there are many others who do not.
There have been plenty of high-profile cases with specimens collected and transported illegally, and only a few of these are found or repatriated. When single specimens can go for millions, then it is inevitable that criminals will exploit weak borders. At the moment, we don’t expect the average customs inspector to know about state, national or international laws on rocks or fossils in addition to their efforts against more common and pressing kinds of smuggling.
As a palaeontologist, it’s depressing to be on a dig and constantly finding smashed bones where poachers have destroyed a skull to rip out the valuable teeth, or go to a trade show and see rows of specimens from countries that have a strict and outright ban on any excavations or exports. Even specimens that have been traded legally have come under scrutiny for containing too few original bones (incomplete skeletons are often supplemented with replacement bones cast from other specimens), and I have seen some odd and perhaps exaggerated claims made about fossils that are up for sale.
The irony is that these claims are unverified and unstudied by scientists precisely because the material is in private hands, and unavailable for research. That gives some a creative licence to hype up the fossil and claim that it resolves some scientific question or is the first record of some feature or condition, but it’s done to boost the price and in a further irony makes it more unlikely that it would be affordable for any museum.
Not every fossil is scientifically valuable. Many things like small ammonites and shark teeth, or small fragments of bones, are so numerous that scientists can access thousands if they need to do so. But thousands are of incredible value, and many are vanishing into private hands. Even if you are firmly behind the idea that this is all fine and that’s how markets work, it’s surely hard to condone the illegal trade in the property of other countries that goes on.
Even when material is confiscated and repatriated, it can be of very limited value. There’s no information (or none trustworthy) on exactly where it came from and so how old it is, what other finds come from there, or how the specimen was treated before it reached a museum. So even recovering illegally traded fossils does little for science.
It’s hard to see any of this stopping any time soon. And it’s also hard not to be sad seeing incredible fossils that could contribute to the world’s knowledge about this planet and its history being advertised for their scientific value when they will most likely end up in a Silicon Valley office.
Fossils are a finite resource of unknown extent. We might never dig up another Stegosaurus, or never find one nearly as big or complete as this, and museums are not usually able to find millions of dollars at short notice. Even if this one does end up in a public collection, it will be unusual in that regard. It’s not hard to feel the frustration of a scientist watching a prize palaeontological find up for sale.
Dr David Hone is a reader in zoology at Queen Mary, University of London, specialising in dinosaurs and pterosaurs
