Commercial sale of fossils

It is abhorrent that potentially scientifically valuable fossils can be sold readily on the Internet and at Rock and Fossil shows. Just the other day I saw a ceratosaur brain case for sale on Ebay. On a site that it is often possible to link to from this site there are many psittacosaur skeletons for sale for thousands of dollars. Not a single one of these excellent specimens have been examined by university train paleontologists. Not only were there skeletons of dinosaurs, but dinosaur eggs and skeletons of other ancient reptiles and amphibians as well. Most if not all of the specimens that I have seen for sale were smuggled illegally out of china. China claims all fossils as its own historical resource and property of the people of that nation. By buying these fossils, people only support an illegal trade in fossils. Not that long ago a psittacosaur skull and part of the skeleton was actually stolen from the Russian National Museum. I have no idea if that person was ever caught. If people were to stop buying these fossils to display in their homes and offices, then the middle men would find themselves without retailers to sell to. It would trickle down the line to the poor Chinese farmer who gets maybe a dollar for his priceless specimen that happened to be on his land. If the Beijing museum could pay these farmers equivalent amounts of money for their specimens that they might have gotten from smugglers, then the fossils would make their way to museum collections instead of fossil dealers snatching up these finds. The reason that it is important that the museum have the fossil is that they are essentially there to allow everybody to appreciate the fossil. Also, about 90% of the information that can be gleamed from a fossil is collected before its even out of the ground. Poachers don't collect this information and its therefor lost forever.

I propose a solution to this problem that I only think fossil dealers would find unamacable. The museums accross the world have unique specimens which they make copies of for the purpose of trading with other museums so that they can display more specimens than they have in their collections. The molds that they use to make the copies are kept in a warehouse. The museums could copywrite the mold as an artistic creation then have exclusive writes to make copies of the fossil (people who make a copy of a copy are penalized under copywrite law). By taking orders for skeletons from people interested in buying copies, they could satiate the croud just looking for something to have in their home or office. Also, making the copies much more affordable than real fossils would also curb desire to own the real thing. A couple of staff members could even be hired on for the sole purpose of filling orders. Profits from the sale of these replicas could then be used to compensate land owners competitively for their fossil finds.

I've heard it argued that eliminating the sale of fossils or widely distributing copies of bones would reduse interest in fossils (kids become interested with a childhood fossil collection) or in going to the museum. It would be naive to believe that reducing the sale of scientifically valuable specimens will totally eliminate the fossil dealing industry. Scores of invertebrates such as ammonites, brachiopods, polycopods, trilobites, corals, bryozoans, etc. would still be widely available. Kids don't start their collection with a 10 thousand dollar dinosaur skeleton. Oligocene mammals are also in abundant (but not infinite) supply. Then again I'm a little biased towards the preservation of reptile and amphibian skeletons. As an added measure, enforcement agents should be able to seive illegally collected fossils and return them to their appropriate institutions. In Alberta, Dan Spivak is known as the fossil cop. He regualarly checks the internet an fossil shops for the sale of fossils that were collected in Alberta. For example, Burgess Shale fossils are strictly prohibited from sale. So he alerts law enforcement and testifies in court against people who illegally have Alberta fossils. As part of the Sino Canadian Dinosaur Project, an enforcement agent could force the return of stolen fossils to china. China in turn could grant north american museums (particularly those who the enforcer is associated with) the right to prep the fossils and publish on them first or jointly with Chinese paleontologists.