Sales of insects in amber - Your Views!

[LynM]

Fascinating stuff! I can only say that I'm glad that the Amber Shop is in Southwold! If it was any closer I might have been tempted to go and have a look. I do have a pair of amber earrings and an amber ring, but they don't have any inclusions, but they were still reasonably expensive.

[ron1863]

Only a woman could coin the phrase - reasonably expensive

[Ukwildlifeo]

Originally Posted by Acutipuerilis

Hi folks. I think I'm the only palaeontologist regularly on here,

Your not, well theres one at least (I have a palaeobiology BSc and a Micropalaeontologist MSc). Some good points raised. The whole fossils for private collections is a difficult one for the reasons you've raised. many of the (illegal) chinese exported fossils are of great scientific value but cant be studied due to stubborn private collectors and the fact a type specimen for a species has to be an accessable collection (ie a musuem).
There is a fellow that collects pretty much all the bird fossils from Walton Naze and takes them home. He wont let any scientist look at thema nd his wife has vowed to throw them in a skip when he dies. These fossil are from a critical time for birds (the Eocene) with few examples elsewhere in the world from this time and thatnks to this frankly silly man they are inaccessable to science

[Ukwildlifeo]

Originally Posted by Gill Catton

could be, I'm no expert but I read a bit about fakes Vs real amber at it seemed to match up ok as real amber.

Sorry Gill if that came accross as a dig at you (I just read it again), it wasn't meant as one. The ones I was refering to at the ones on THAT well known auction site...

[Acutipuerilis]

Originally Posted by Ukwildlifeo

Your not, well theres one at least (I have a palaeobiology BSc and a Micropalaeontologist MSc).

Sorry!

Originally Posted by Ukwildlifeo

many of the (illegal) chinese exported fossils are of great scientific value but cant be studied due to stubborn private collectors and the fact a type specimen for a species has to be an accessable collection (ie a musuem).
There is a fellow that collects pretty much all the bird fossils from Walton Naze and takes them home. He wont let any scientist look at thema nd his wife has vowed to throw them in a skip when he dies. These fossil are from a critical time for birds (the Eocene) with few examples elsewhere in the world from this time and thatnks to this frankly silly man they are inaccessable to science

This was a new one on me, but my partner's apparently heard about this painful situation. There are rumours that it stems from a tactless initial encounter with a museum or scientist. This certainly does happen - there's a very important early Ordovician site in the Welsh borders that is now completely inaccessible because the landowner was fed up with researchers going and collecting without asking permission. He apparently now explains the situation to trespassers from behind a shotgun.

The other side is that relationships with collectors can work very well, with a bit of respect on both sides - I've seen exactly what can be achieved in places like Morocco, when the right sort of relationships are built up, and it can benefit everyone. Having said that, I've also seen the work of commercial plunderers in mid Wales, and that is just horrifying. There are times when it works, and times when it's hard to see how it possibly could...

Gill, it's a good point - specimens that are being described or figured do need to be in a museum. However, as recompense, we can provide a cast of the specimen, a copy o the paper... and there's always the option of naming it after them! I'm currently working on an early starfish where the donor has decided to let a local museum take it. She'd sad to part with it, but we're naming it after their farm, and making a latex cast and a copy of the reconstruction for her. It's like haggling - the ideal is that everyone feels they've done well out of it.

[Ukwildlifeo]

Originally Posted by Acutipuerilis

Sorry!

No need to apologise! I meant to put a smiley face at the end of that sentence, its worded badly (twice in a row on the same thread for me now!)

Its sad this stuff goes on but I know of a dodgy palaeontologist thats making a mint out of selling fossils and is ripping off other people work and beaten them to the publishing first for naming new species with his own journal so the are bad palaeos too...

On a side note do you annoyed with people saying "...oh like Ross from Friends..." when you say your a palaeontologist!?

[Meta menardi]

I'd sooner find a piece of amber with nothing in it than buy one with an insect in it. That sounds like a plea for meaness, but that is not the way I mean it. I have, for example, found part of a Bronze age axe (duly reported and recorded by the local museum) and it means more to me than a gold torque that I might buy for many thousands of pounds. We all know what these things look like and probably don't have the knowledge to interpret them, but a brass button found is worth more on a personal level than a bought artefact.

[Acutipuerilis]

Originally Posted by Ukwildlifeo

No need to apologise! I meant to put a smiley face at the end of that sentence, its worded badly (twice in a row on the same thread for me now!)

No worries - I just didn't want to offend though ignorance!

Originally Posted by Ukwildlifeo

On a side note do you annoyed with people saying "...oh like Ross from Friends..." when you say your a palaeontologist!?

Don't even go there... I mean, I never even watched Friends...

Meta: I agree completely. The value of going out and discovering something youself, no matter how trivial, is enormous. Unfortunately, most children who collect fossils nowadays are actually buying them, and I don't know how it's got to that state - they just don't understand, and it's really rather sad.