purplecat | Fossil Friday: Sue

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Large, partially revealed Fossil T. rex skull with a man in long hair, glasses and moustache posed behind it.

Image stolen from Naish: Great Dinosaur Discoveries

Sue is the largest, most complete Tyrannosaur skeleton found to date. She was excavated by the somewhat controversial Pete Larson and a lengthy dispute resulted about to whom, precisely, the fossil belonged. As an indirect result of this Larson ended up in prison for "failure to fill out forms" which, whatever one thinks of the morality of ownership of excavated fossils, seems needlessly punitive. Of course I'm biased since B. knows Pete well.

Crossposts: https://louisedennis.livejournal.com/659479.html

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From:

fredbassett

The case is an interesting one. I've read a lot on the fossil trade as it impacts on my area of study with heritage crimes in general, and I think one of the problems with the widespread 'legitimate' trade that Larson claims to engage in is that it can mask the extent of the illegal trade and to an extent acts as a shield for it.

From:

I only know what gets relayed to me via Phil and B - but a lot of their work couldn't have happened without the help and support of Pete and the Black Hills Institute and they take the view that in many cases, without a trade, the money simply isn't there for running dig sites and in South Dakota, at least, these things are eroding out of the earth (its not a case of leave 'em alone and future generations can excavate them).

From:

fredbassett

*nods* I totally get that, and it's a horribly complicated ethical argument. But the sheer scale of the illegal trade is horrendous and there are areas in which massive damage is being done. It's a bit like the argument about the ivory trade.

When I first saw so called 'ethical' ivory, eg mammoth ivory, I thought hmm, that's interesting, then I researched it and saw the vast environmental damage being done in Siberia by 'mining' with high pressure water canon eroding huge areas of tundra with appalling slurry killing entire rivers, and then thought again about it.

'Heritage' crime is a bit of a hobby horse of mine, and I read a lot on it. I don't know the answers but there are a hell of a lot of questions.

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