'Hollywood's celebrity buys fossils of dinosaurs and paleontology research does not progress,' the scholar requests regulation

A fossil whose figure of ancient creatures remains in the stratum as it is is popular among many people as an item to convey the ancient times. Especially the market price of dinosaur fossils is said to rise year by year as demand increases by wealthy private collectors such as Hollywood stars. In response to such a situation, it is reported that scholars studying paleontology require regulation "to stop trading dinosaur fossils generally in the world".

Dinosaur fossil collectors 'price museums out of the market' | Science | The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2019/feb/24/dinosaur-fossils-collectors-museums-price-sale

It seems that specimens of fossil are handled in the art market, and its price is high enough not to be defeated by other works of art. For example, the skeleton of Tyrannosaurus Rex , the largest carnivorous dinosaur in history ever lived in the late Cretaceous, reaches a maximum of 10 million dollars (about 1.1 billion yen). Also, the skull of herbivory dinosaur Triceratops living in the Cretaceous is about 170 thousand dollars (about 19 million yen) to 400 thousand dollars (45 million yen), Diplodocus 's bone of the large herbivorous dinosaur that inhabited in the late Jurassic period is 570 thousand It seems that it will be traded on the dollar (about 63 million yen) to 1.1 million dollars (about 120 million yen).

Not only dinosaur bones but also specimens of extinct animals are rising in price, specimens of eggs of Epikolnis , thought to have been extinct in the 18th to 19th centuries, which were once the largest birds in history, are $ 130,000 It seems that it was dealt with at a price of about 15 million yen (about 14 million yen), it seems to have been traded, and it is about 5 times the price compared with 10 years ago.

However, Jerry Smith, who studies the evolution of freshwater fishes in the department of animals at the University of Michigan in response to such fossils going to the market and becoming a collection of collectors, said, "Fossils and specimens have joined the collection of individuals Even with that, the understanding, interpretation and discovery of new information contained in the specimen will never be brought to the community of science. "

In the auction held in Paris in 2018, an unidentified dinosaur fossil with a body length of about 9 m was exhibited. The fossil was bid for $ 2.3 million (about 260 million yen), but the American Vertebrate Society of America requested the auction organizer to cancel the auction. Although the fishery's winning bidder seems to have claimed that he is a species nomenclature, the Old Vertebrate Society urged that "the naming of the new species will be misleading as it is done in accordance with the international naming convention" It was.

The popularity of fossils has been increased, it is said that the influence of the movie " Jurassic Park " released in 1993 is great. Collectors who buy fossils through auctions often have celebrities such as Hollywood stars, especially actors Nicholas Cage , Russell Crowe , Leonardo DiCaprio and others are also known as avid fossil collectors.

by Gerald Geronimo

Unusual fossils are traded at very high prices, so it is likely that things acquired by illegal means, such as being stolen from excavation sites or museums, are often flown across auctions. In 2007 Nicolas Cage won a bid for the Skull of Tyrannosaurus put on an auction anonymously for about $ 280,000 (about 32 million yen). However, according to experts' examination, it was found that this skull was a fossil illegally brought out from the excavation site in Mongolia, and the paleontologist who passed sideways was convicted . After that, it seems that fossils have been returned to Mongolia safely.

According to Catherine Badgley, former chairman of the American Vertebrate Academy Society, there are many fossils to be found in Colorado, Wyoming and Utah states in the United States, but the unusual fossils found there are auctioned It is said that it flows often. "For example, a bat fossil is a very rare fossil, but if half of it is in a private collector's private collection, it will result in a huge amount of important information being lost," Badgley said I am talking.

By National Park Service

Badgley said, "The more fossilized specimens are expensive, the less palaeobically valuable, the fossil collectors will focus on rarity and economic value rather than fossil scientific information," While noting the understanding of the fossil collection, "I should not sell fossils, most fossils, especially vertebrate fossils are not just dinosaurs and are not ordinary things".