The Moor Things Change, The More They Stay the Same

Once again, I'm at the Tucson Mineral and Fossil Show.  I consider these trips to be valuable educational opportunities.  For instance, I'm learning how much the value of the U.S. dollar has dropped in the last few years compared for foreign currencies.  Since Morocco is one of the biggest exporters of fossils today, they are possibly the best yardstick to judge the value of the dollar in terms of the actual quality of a specimen.  In particular, I've been looking at a Tethysaur partial skeleton with an attached limb.  This is very rare.  Two years ago, I saw a similar specimen without a limb for about 2.5 grand.  This year, the one that I'm looking at is over 4 grand.  

Another valuable thing that I've learned is that vertebrate fossils are essentially smuggled out of Morocco.  Apparently nobody ever declares what is in the actual box when they ship something out of the country.  they put some polished pieces of marble on top, say that the whole box is full of the same and easily get incredibly valuable fossils past customs.   I'm not quite sure how I feel about this in terms of the balance between respect for another country's attempt to keep its historical resources within its border and the respect for the fact that there would be no way for Morocco to protect or house the fossils even if they stayed there.  After learning this, I've held off on buying any more Moroccan material.  This will likely be a short lived moratorium as I plan on buying that Tethysaur tomorrow morning as soon as I hear whether or not I qualify for the company $1000 publication bonus.   A museum that is interested might be able to swing another grand to chip in and the tax refund on donating it is worth about another thousand.  Well, lets see how things work out.