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Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of iHeart

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Radio, Hey

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brain Stuff Lauren Vogelbaum. Here in

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June, the remains of

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what was believed to be an Alisaurus

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were sold to the highest bidder for over two

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million dollars at the Augot auction house

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in Paris, France. Nearly

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thirty ft or nine meters long and

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complete, it's valuable in more ways

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than one. Like all fossils,

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these bones are ambassadors from an earlier

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time. The creature they belonged to drew

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its last breath in Wyoming a hundred and

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fifty million years ago. It was a

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different world back then. Earth was considerably

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warmer, and most mammals were rabbit

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sized or smaller. Auction

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houses no, there are plenty of buyers who will pay

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top dollar to own a rare and scientifically

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significant piece of prehistory. Agot

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sold the skeleton of another meat eating dino for

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three point two million dollars in and

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has fetched over six hundred and forty thousand

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for a complete William Myth, and

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those sums look like pocket change next to

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the eight point three six million that

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the Chicago Field Museum and several corporate

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partners paid back in for

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sue the most complete Tyrrenosaurs

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rex ever found. But

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wait a minute, how does one come to own

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a fossil that you can sell to the

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highest bidder? We spoke

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with P. David Pauli, a professor

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of geology at Indiana University and past

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president of the International Society for Vertebrate

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Paleontology. He explained

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that laws vary from country to country, but

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in the United States, fossils that are discovered

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on federal land are considered public

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property quote they're

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held in trust on our behalf by the US federal

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government. The Paleontological Resources

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Prevention Act, which was passed by Congress in two

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thousand nine, stipulates that scientifically

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important fossils can only be collected

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with a scientific permit and must be placed

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in an approved repository, that

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is, a research collection of a museum or

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university, where they will be available

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to scientists and other interested people. Note

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here that Native American land is exempted

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according to the Federal Register. Fossil collecting

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on this soil falls under the jurisdiction of

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tribal authorities, and

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the Act is a bit more lenient when it comes to

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common plant and invertebrate fossils like

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trilobites. Private citizens

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are allowed to collect those for personal use

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in reasonable quantities on federal land

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without a permit. However, any

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fossils taken from federally owned rock

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may not be bartered or sold later. Note

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that special rules may apply to certain

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remains in locations. For example,

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it's a misdemeanor to collect petrified wood

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in Arizona's Petrified Forest National

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Park. If you've got any questions

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about the rules in your area, you should get in touch

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with the closest Bureau of Land Management office.

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Polly noted. Some US states, such as

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Wyoming in California, have similar

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laws protecting fossils on state lands,

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but across the country, fossils

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discovered on private property belong to

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the landowner. This isn't

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true around the world. In countries like Mongolia,

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dinosaur fossils are considered to be part of the

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nation's shared cultural heritage, regardless

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of where they're found. As such,

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they can't be sold in private markets, and

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personal ownership of these remains is against

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the law. Actor Nicholas

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Cage of all people now knows a thing or two about

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Mongolia's strict fossil laws. In

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two thousand seven, the skull of an Asian

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tyrannosaur went up for auction. Cage

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bought it for two hundred seventy six thousand dollars,

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outbidding fellow movie star Leonardo DiCaprio

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when he learned that the fossil had been illegally poached

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from Mongolia, though Cage agreed to repatriate

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it back to its native land. But

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if you, as a resident of the United

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States, find the remains of a dinosaur

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on American real estate that you own,

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you can legally keep it, sell it,

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or export it. The question

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is should you that

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carnivorous dino that changed hands in

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Rris was excavated

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from private land between

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Upon learning that a goot plan to auction it

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off, the Society for Vertebrate Paleontology

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wrote an open letter begging the organization

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to cancel the sale. A goot sold

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it anyway. The buyer's identity

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wasn't made public, but they stated that the bones

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would be loaned out to a museum at some point

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so that researchers would get the chance to study

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them, and they followed up on that

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promise. As of May nineteen,

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the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences

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and Brussels premiered the specimen, which

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they studied and determined to be a new Alosaurus

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species that they've named Arcane.

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That follow through is a huge relief.

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Peer review is an important facet of paleontology.

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If one dinosaur expert writes something about

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a particular fossil, their colleagues

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need to be able to go back and inspect the specimen

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for themselves. Doing so requires

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guaranteed access to the remains, something

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private fossil owners may choose to

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with hold, and

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geological context is another thing to consider.

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The rock in which a fossil is found is just as

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important as the fossil itself. To

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figure out how old a specimen is or what

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its environment looked like, we need to know

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exactly where it came from. Private

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fossil buyers might be unable to provide

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this information. Then

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there's the small matter of museum budgets.

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Universities and public museums frequently

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can't afford to meet some of the high prices

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that have been set by auctioneers and fossil dealers.

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In the wake of Sue's blockbuster sale,

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Polly said almost everybody

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has gotten excited at one time or another about

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the massive dinosaurs that once walked the earth.

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That inspiration comes directly from the fact

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that many of them were carefully excavated,

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placed in public trust repositories, and

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become part of the scientific record. Unfortunately,

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that same excitement can make people want to

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have one of their own. It

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is true that fossil sales people have

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made some major contributions to paleontology.

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Just look at Mary Anning, an English

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seller of priest org treasures, who discovered

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extinct marine reptiles like please a Saurus.

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Regardless, Polly and many of his

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fellow scientists worry that countries

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that don't commit to putting their important fossils

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in public trust where anyone can study

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them are forfeiting a gold mine

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of knowledge. He said, fossils

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are not like works of art. They weren't created

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to be high priced collector's items. They're

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rare remnants of our past that are important

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to us all. Today's

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episode was written by Mark Mancini and produced by

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Tyler Clang. For more on this and lots of

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other topics that really dig in, visit how Stuff

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works dot Com. Brain Stuff is production

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