Note: This article was originally printed with the title, "Fossils for All."

This article was originally published with the title Fossils for All.

9 Comments

1. 1. Sean Meaney 11:24 AM 8/24/09

   I think they need to register a fossil the instant it is pulled from the ground (digger, location, time), and if it is decided that the fossil excavator wishes to sell, submit it for public auction where all universities, museums, and private collectors are invited to bid on it for the right to it. No unregistered fossil trading, no backroom private deals.
   
   That is what needs to be enforced world wide under United Nations laws for the protection of cultural and historical heritage.
   
   If they had had that when I was going to University, the million dollar sea plant fossil as old Trilobites (which have been found in the same layer) which I pulled from the ground while the Charles Darwin University was obsenely bulldozing land for a new Carpark to the detriment of its underlying fossil beds. My mistake was handing it over only to have it 'vanish' while in the care of University staff. Undoubtably it vanished into the black market. It irritated my sense of ethics.
   
   Considering international law requires indigenous peoples to profit from scientific discoveries, at least half of that fossil's sale value should have been paid to the poor indigenous peoples pushed to the fringes of the city. Considering my own poverty, I certainly would have enjoyed some financial reward toward my own overpriced university education that turned out to be beyond my financial means and below my ethics.

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2. 2. coolmoss 12:47 PM 8/24/09

   What is par for the course for the field of Paleontology, seems unscientific to the rest of the world. One can get hung up on these squabbles and lose sight of what an outstanding find early hominid fossils really are. Weather a fossil skull falls into the species Africanus, Afarensis, or makes up a whole new species is of the up most importance and requires much debate in this field for instance, but one should not lose sight of the pursuit of human history, and the importance of dotting all your i's and crossing all of your t's. These things can take time.
   I'm reminded of Leaky and Johanson in this regard; two of the worlds top fossil hunters who's opinions have in the past differed for similar reasons.
   Only time tells.
   
   As for displaying Lucy, I would love a chance to view her. All squabbling aside, she is an early upright and the hair on my arms raises just imagining those early steps.
   

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3. 3. Pierre Francois Puech 06:26 AM 8/25/09

   CONSERVATION OF EARLY MAN FOSSILS: Researches on the origin of man based on the fossilized remains are very similar to forensic investigations. Pierre Francois PUECH.
   
   In both cases, once recognized as a data likely to provide information, it is necessary to isolate the subject so that only specialists will have the opportunity to intervene. Any manipulation has consequence, and may be harmful for future research. The specialists are necessarily trained in the field and in laboratories. Learning requires years as each case is very particular and methods must adapt.
   Personally, I examine the surface of fossilized teeth for over thirty years. This with the aid of the electronic microscope using nitro cellulosic replicas (varnish PRESI). A similar chemical substance is also to strengthen cracked fossilized bones and teeth. It is the best condition not to alter or modify the physical and chemical state of the surface. In this practice, that led me to work in many museums and laboratories, I found that some fossils had been irreparably damaged by researchers who probably knew what they were looking but have used damaging methods. For example, and it seems almost incredible, jet of sand particles under pressure have been used to remove surface concretions on australopithecine teeth.
   For all these reasons, it seems essential to remain on the side of caution and make full trust to the discoverers to watch over precious fossils. Wed better be very careful with this human heritage. I propose more information in the curator journal: http://www.e-conservationline.com/content/view/749
   

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4. 4. SpoonmanWoS 01:10 PM 8/25/09

   Sigh...I just recently saw the solution to this problem, and it really is quite simple: high-powered X-ray scanning combined with 3-D printing.
   
   A high-power X-ray scanner scans the object completely. Once done, you have a 3-D rendering of the object that's similar to what you'd see in MRI images of a person. Every detail inside and out is duplicated. This can then be sent to a 3-D printer and an EXACT copy be retrieved in hours.
   
   As I recall, there's only one university that's doing this today, but they provide the renderings in digital form to any one who requests them. The requester can then print their own version to study. Imagine a time when this is universally available to all archaeologists. Every bone fragment, pottery shard or piece of a cuneiform table can now be available to every other archaeologist on the planet to study. A database can be built of such renderings and instead of scientists needing to dig through archives and by surprise find items long forgotten, they can browse an online repository and then print their own copy of these finds.
   
   It's the 21st century. It's time for 21st century solutions.

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5. 5. Dirkvt 05:14 PM 9/1/09

   The previous entry refers to a need to have fossils scanned. Three-dimensional printout can then be made available to interested parties. A database can be built as well, the author writes.
   
   I completely agree, and would like to draw attention to the fact that Lucy was scanned at the University of Texas in Austin. The scan data were given back to the National Museum in Ethiopia and to the ARCCH (Authority for Research and Conservation of Cultural Heritage) in the same country.
   
   On another note, a database with highly detailed images of fossils can be found at http://digimorph.org/
   
   The decision to allow Lucy to travel as part of a broader exhibit on Ethiopia also created the opportunity for her to be scanned while in Texas. A 21st century solution indeed.

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6. 6. MITDGreenb 04:20 PM 9/16/09

   The article... and the comments above regarding scanning... remind me of another case of antiquities hoarding by a few anointed scientists: the Dead Sea Scrolls. In both cases, we see some of the worst of human behavior exhibited by the scientists:
   
   1) Ego: "I found it so it's my destiny to make the seminal and definitive description/interpretation no matter how long it takes."
   2) Avarice: "As long as I don't let go of this, they have to keep funding me even if I got lucky just this once."
   3) Insecurity: "If I open this up, someone else might disagree with me... or prove me wrong!"
   4) Bias: "This must be interpreted within the context of my beliefs (or faith); if I keep it closed, others whose context is different from mine can't disagree."
   
   In all cases, as the article points out, the scientific process is broken and the public which paid, directly or indirectly, is robbed of a return on their investment (whether that return is a chance to see the artifact or to benefit from solid science).
   
   And look at the controversy which erupted when the scans of the Dead Sea Scrolls were made widely available. This action did nothing to endanger the artifacts; it simply challenged the monopoly a small cadre of scientists and theologians had. If similar 3D scans of anthropological fossils are also possible, I expect a similar reaction. Unfortunately, it's human nature (pun intended).

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7. 7. Colin den Ronden 09:58 PM 9/17/09

   Maybe museums can stop the rot by not being so acquisitive, like the British Museum is with the stolen Elgin marbles. If great fossil finds are discovered, rather than ripping them out of the ground to send them to a central national museum, maybe it would be better to build a small museum over them, like the footprints of the dinosaur stampede they have in Queensland. This helps the local economy by improved tourism. Putting a price on fossils is immoral as it only encourages acquisitiveness, like the case in Western Australia some years ago where some thief dug out large dinosaur footprints in rock that had been visible to tourists for years, thus denying it to everybody. When thieves start to feel guilty or feel they might get arrested they tend to destroy the evidence.

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8. 8. eanassir 01:46 AM 10/13/09

   I think that at least some of such fossils came embedded in the mountains: most of the mountains are the remnants of some destroyed past planets that were inhabited in the past; then when those planets were destroyed some skeletons and remnants of trees and animal bodies came embedded in the rocks of the mountains.
   
   Therefore, these fossils are almost the skeletons of some creatures lived on those past planets.
   
   This is indicated by the fact that such fossils are almost found in the rocks of mountains and not in the plain land.
   
   So these million and billion years belong to the old past planets that were destroyed in the past, and do not belong to our Earth.

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9. 9. justjordy33 03:03 PM 7/26/12

   That is crazy for all the stuff they are doing. What type of <a href="http://www.pocketpressprinters.com">printers</a> do they use for the x rays than.

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