recent discovery of predator/prey pair in Hell Creek.

["franklin e. bliss" <frank@blissnet.com>]

http://www.greatfallstribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070114/ 
NEWS01/701140303/1002


Up comes this old debate again and I know many of you will  
disagree....let me take the opportunity to scratch that itch.

Having collected several times with one of the discoverer of this  
important (yet another in Garfield County) North American find, I  
will tell you that the greatest need (besides the need for discovery)  
within their camp is money. The discoverers are private individuals  
with no institutional affiliation, have been paying their own gas for  
years, fixing their own beat up cars, educated themselves and have  
payed their dues in the field. They have never gotten rich doing  
paleontology based on their previous adventures. They just broke  
even.   Finally, though seemingly somewhat clumsily, they discovered  
a really important find.  Good for them and good for science. These  
guys have a true love for fossils that goes way beyond obsession.  If  
they didn't find it, the discovery may not have happened in the first  
place or much later down the road.  This is really big country up  
here (for those of you that haven't been here) and there is NO  
substitute for trained eyes walking lots of hills.

True enough, these animals will be collected for and sold to the  
highest bidder. Hopefully, the scientific community will have first  
pick and perhaps even a rich Montana resident will belly up and put  
them in a local museum.  These are side issues to my discussion  
however.  The important thing here is, without contributions of  
private fellows like Mark Eatman, paleontology would be a more more  
boring place.  Specimens from private individuals fill museums across  
the country.  It is of course highly likely that a private collector  
will snap this fossil up.  Fortunately, the science will out live  
that private individual and the specimens will eventually get donated  
to a museum by the estate.

How is this different than not finding the fossil for 100 years (when  
science would finally get to see it) or worse not finding it at all  
only for erosion to destroy the fossil.  My point is that it is  
better to find the things, get them out of the ground (hopefully with  
some scientific support and guidance) thereby saving them from  
eventual destruction than not find them at all. What many just don't  
get is, science will get to study the thing eventually.  It is better  
then to have professional paleontologists work with the commercial  
guys to retrieve as much context as possible during the excavation.   
Many have the attitude that commercial guys are bad guys so don't  
work with them at all. This is where valuable scientific data is  
lost, (because of attitude). I think we are lucky to have commercial  
guys (at least some of them). The SVP needs to change it's policy.

Frank (Rooster) Bliss
MS Biostratigraphy
Weston, Wyoming
www.dinosaursmontana.com