WEBVTT - Who Owns the Rights to Dinosaur Fossils? 0:00:01.920 --> 0:00:06.400 Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of iHeart Radio, Hey 0:00:06.440 --> 0:00:11.480 brain Stuff Lauren Vogelbaum. Here in June, the remains of 0:00:11.520 --> 0:00:14.280 what was believed to be an Alisaurus were sold to 0:00:14.320 --> 0:00:17.200 the highest bidder for over two million dollars at the 0:00:17.239 --> 0:00:21.239 Augot auction house in Paris, France. Nearly thirty ft or 0:00:21.320 --> 0:00:25.439 nine meters long and complete, it's valuable in more ways 0:00:25.440 --> 0:00:29.440 than one. Like all fossils, these bones are ambassadors from 0:00:29.440 --> 0:00:32.519 an earlier time. The creature they belonged to drew its 0:00:32.560 --> 0:00:35.680 last breath in Wyoming a hundred and fifty million years ago. 0:00:36.200 --> 0:00:39.479 It was a different world back then. Earth was considerably warmer, 0:00:39.520 --> 0:00:44.159 and most mammals were rabbit sized or smaller. Auction houses no, 0:00:44.280 --> 0:00:46.520 there are plenty of buyers who will pay top dollar 0:00:46.640 --> 0:00:50.200 to own a rare and scientifically significant piece of prehistory. 0:00:51.040 --> 0:00:53.680 Agot sold the skeleton of another meat eating dino for 0:00:53.760 --> 0:00:57.440 three point two million dollars in and has fetched over 0:00:57.480 --> 0:01:00.320 six hundred and forty thousand for a complete William Myth, 0:01:01.320 --> 0:01:03.680 and those sums look like pocket change next to the 0:01:03.720 --> 0:01:07.000 eight point three six million that the Chicago Field Museum 0:01:07.040 --> 0:01:10.920 and several corporate partners paid back in for sue the 0:01:10.959 --> 0:01:15.759 most complete Tyrrenosaurs rex ever found. But wait a minute, 0:01:16.120 --> 0:01:18.440 how does one come to own a fossil that you 0:01:18.640 --> 0:01:22.000 can sell to the highest bidder? We spoke with P. 0:01:22.319 --> 0:01:25.720 David Pauli, a professor of geology at Indiana University and 0:01:25.800 --> 0:01:30.039 past president of the International Society for Vertebrate Paleontology. He 0:01:30.200 --> 0:01:33.160 explained that laws vary from country to country, but in 0:01:33.200 --> 0:01:36.360 the United States, fossils that are discovered on federal land 0:01:36.440 --> 0:01:40.600 are considered public property quote they're held in trust on 0:01:40.640 --> 0:01:44.480 our behalf by the US federal government. The Paleontological Resources 0:01:44.520 --> 0:01:47.240 Prevention Act, which was passed by Congress in two thousand nine, 0:01:47.560 --> 0:01:51.480 stipulates that scientifically important fossils can only be collected with 0:01:51.520 --> 0:01:55.040 a scientific permit and must be placed in an approved repository, 0:01:55.560 --> 0:01:58.520 that is, a research collection of a museum or university, 0:01:58.760 --> 0:02:02.000 where they will be available to scientists and other interested people. 0:02:03.400 --> 0:02:06.680 Note here that Native American land is exempted according to 0:02:06.720 --> 0:02:09.679 the Federal Register. Fossil collecting on this soil falls under 0:02:09.720 --> 0:02:14.160 the jurisdiction of tribal authorities, and the Act is a 0:02:14.160 --> 0:02:16.560 bit more lenient when it comes to common plant and 0:02:16.600 --> 0:02:20.720 invertebrate fossils like trilobites. Private citizens are allowed to collect 0:02:20.760 --> 0:02:24.440 those for personal use in reasonable quantities on federal land 0:02:24.440 --> 0:02:28.720 without a permit. However, any fossils taken from federally owned 0:02:28.840 --> 0:02:32.520 rock may not be bartered or sold later. Note that 0:02:32.560 --> 0:02:36.760 special rules may apply to certain remains in locations. For example, 0:02:36.960 --> 0:02:40.399 it's a misdemeanor to collect petrified wood in Arizona's Petrified 0:02:40.440 --> 0:02:43.959 Forest National Park. If you've got any questions about the 0:02:44.040 --> 0:02:45.840 rules in your area, you should get in touch with 0:02:45.840 --> 0:02:49.440 the closest Bureau of Land Management office. Polly noted. Some 0:02:49.639 --> 0:02:52.880 US states, such as Wyoming in California, have similar laws 0:02:52.919 --> 0:02:58.440 protecting fossils on state lands, but across the country, fossils 0:02:58.520 --> 0:03:02.880 discovered on private property belong to the landowner. This isn't 0:03:02.919 --> 0:03:06.480 true around the world. In countries like Mongolia, dinosaur fossils 0:03:06.480 --> 0:03:09.480 are considered to be part of the nation's shared cultural heritage, 0:03:09.680 --> 0:03:13.080 regardless of where they're found. As such, they can't be 0:03:13.120 --> 0:03:16.359 sold in private markets, and personal ownership of these remains 0:03:16.440 --> 0:03:20.120 is against the law. Actor Nicholas Cage of all people 0:03:20.200 --> 0:03:23.200 now knows a thing or two about Mongolia's strict fossil laws. 0:03:23.680 --> 0:03:26.640 In two thousand seven, the skull of an Asian tyrannosaur 0:03:26.720 --> 0:03:29.440 went up for auction. Cage bought it for two hundred 0:03:29.480 --> 0:03:33.840 seventy six thousand dollars, outbidding fellow movie star Leonardo DiCaprio 0:03:34.120 --> 0:03:36.320 when he learned that the fossil had been illegally poached 0:03:36.320 --> 0:03:39.440 from Mongolia, though Cage agreed to repatriate it back to 0:03:39.480 --> 0:03:44.040 its native land. But if you, as a resident of 0:03:44.040 --> 0:03:47.160 the United States, find the remains of a dinosaur on 0:03:47.280 --> 0:03:51.320 American real estate that you own, you can legally keep it, 0:03:51.600 --> 0:03:55.520 sell it, or export it. The question is should you 0:03:57.520 --> 0:04:02.240 that carnivorous dino that changed hands in Rris was excavated 0:04:02.240 --> 0:04:07.440 from private land between Upon learning that a goot plan 0:04:07.560 --> 0:04:10.880 to auction it off, the Society for Vertebrate Paleontology wrote 0:04:10.880 --> 0:04:13.960 an open letter begging the organization to cancel the sale. 0:04:14.520 --> 0:04:18.240 A goot sold it anyway. The buyer's identity wasn't made public, 0:04:18.440 --> 0:04:20.520 but they stated that the bones would be loaned out 0:04:20.520 --> 0:04:23.159 to a museum at some point so that researchers would 0:04:23.200 --> 0:04:26.080 get the chance to study them, and they followed up 0:04:26.080 --> 0:04:29.880 on that promise. As of May nineteen, the Royal Belgian 0:04:29.920 --> 0:04:33.400 Institute of Natural Sciences and Brussels premiered the specimen, which 0:04:33.400 --> 0:04:36.320 they studied and determined to be a new Alosaurus species 0:04:36.480 --> 0:04:41.719 that they've named Arcane. That follow through is a huge relief. 0:04:42.440 --> 0:04:46.200 Peer review is an important facet of paleontology. If one 0:04:46.200 --> 0:04:50.039 dinosaur expert writes something about a particular fossil, their colleagues 0:04:50.120 --> 0:04:52.040 need to be able to go back and inspect the 0:04:52.080 --> 0:04:56.920 specimen for themselves. Doing so requires guaranteed access to the remains, 0:04:57.279 --> 0:05:01.960 something private fossil owners may choose to with hold, and 0:05:02.320 --> 0:05:05.440 geological context is another thing to consider. The rock in 0:05:05.480 --> 0:05:07.760 which a fossil is found is just as important as 0:05:07.760 --> 0:05:10.880 the fossil itself. To figure out how old a specimen 0:05:11.040 --> 0:05:13.479 is or what its environment looked like, we need to 0:05:13.520 --> 0:05:17.200 know exactly where it came from. Private fossil buyers might 0:05:17.200 --> 0:05:21.119 be unable to provide this information. Then there's the small 0:05:21.160 --> 0:05:25.560 matter of museum budgets. Universities and public museums frequently can't 0:05:25.600 --> 0:05:27.760 afford to meet some of the high prices that have 0:05:27.800 --> 0:05:30.359 been set by auctioneers and fossil dealers. In the wake 0:05:30.400 --> 0:05:35.640 of Sue's blockbuster sale, Polly said almost everybody has gotten 0:05:35.640 --> 0:05:38.440 excited at one time or another about the massive dinosaurs 0:05:38.480 --> 0:05:42.080 that once walked the earth. That inspiration comes directly from 0:05:42.080 --> 0:05:45.280 the fact that many of them were carefully excavated, placed 0:05:45.279 --> 0:05:50.680 in public trust repositories, and become part of the scientific record. Unfortunately, 0:05:50.839 --> 0:05:53.480 that same excitement can make people want to have one 0:05:53.520 --> 0:05:58.440 of their own. It is true that fossil sales people 0:05:58.480 --> 0:06:02.280 have made some major contributions to paleontology. Just look at 0:06:02.360 --> 0:06:05.440 Mary Anning, an English seller of priest org treasures, who 0:06:05.440 --> 0:06:10.640 discovered extinct marine reptiles like please a Saurus. Regardless, Polly 0:06:10.720 --> 0:06:13.680 and many of his fellow scientists worry that countries that 0:06:13.800 --> 0:06:16.920 don't commit to putting their important fossils in public trust 0:06:17.120 --> 0:06:20.359 where anyone can study them are forfeiting a gold mine 0:06:20.400 --> 0:06:24.560 of knowledge. He said, fossils are not like works of art. 0:06:24.800 --> 0:06:28.119 They weren't created to be high priced collector's items. They're 0:06:28.240 --> 0:06:31.240 rare remnants of our past that are important to us all. 0:06:36.440 --> 0:06:38.880 Today's episode was written by Mark Mancini and produced by 0:06:38.920 --> 0:06:41.120 Tyler Clang. For more on this and lots of other 0:06:41.160 --> 0:06:44.120 topics that really dig in, visit how Stuff works dot Com. 0:06:44.160 --> 0:06:46.960 Brain Stuff is production of iHeart Radio or more podcasts 0:06:47.080 --> 0:06:49.880 my heart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple podcasts, 0:06:49.960 --> 0:06:51.680 or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.