Science for Sale
By Mark StuckenbruckContributing Writer |
his past weekend, a blatant display of the monetization of science took place in the sale of 'Sue' the Tyrannosaurs rex at Sotheby's in
New York. Sue, discovered by her (or his, gender being undetermined) namesake Susan Hendrickson in South Dakota in 1990, was
excavated by the Black Hills Institute, a South Dakota fossil dealer, who purchased the rights to the dinosaur from the owner of the
land, Maurice Williams, for $5,000. Williams is a Sioux Indian who lived on a reservation held at the time by the Federal Government
due to failure to pay taxes. This created complication enough, through unfiled paperwork, to justify government seizure of the fossils
from the Institute, spurring five years of litigation concerning ownership. The outcome, return of the rights to the fossils to Williams,
a man who had already received payment for them, and its subsequent sale at Sotheby's to the highest bidder, demonstrates a sad state
of affairs in the world scientific research of prehistoric life. The affair can be summed up in one word: commercialization.
The fossils, said to be the finest specimen discovered to date, were expected to sell for a little over $1 million. Instead, they sold for
$8.36 million, bought be the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago. The identity of the buyer does not justify the sale, however,
due to the backing of such names as McDonald's Corporation, Ronald McDonald House Charities, Walt Disney World Resort, the California
State University System as well as private donations. Though the fossils' final home will be a place of scientific study where all can
enjoy them, it can be expected that the donors' names will be plastered upon them wherever appropriate. The saddest part of the affair
is that only 22 T.rex fossils have been uncovered as of now. Though these fossils found a place in the hands of the scientific community,
the door has been opened for future sale of valuable prehistoric evidence on a grand scale to private collectors, where they may not be
studied. It also induces the money-hungry to violate valuable unexcavated fossil material in hopes of making millions.
Just such a situation occurred this summer. Keith Rigby, a paleontologist and professor at University of Notre Dame was excavating a T. rex near Glasgow, Montana over the summer. He had sought and received permission of the Waltons, the family he believed to own the land. He and his team did not have time to finish the dig due to Rigby's need to return to school for classes; consequently, they covered the site and asked the Waltons to keep thing quiet until the dig could be finished. They, however, quickly brought in a backhoe and started excavating themselves. It then turned out that the land was not theirs. They had lost it to the government after falling deep into debt. Rigby found out about the violation of the site by word of mouth and informed the police, who quickly stopped the operation. Excavation of the artifacts on federal land is illegal without a permit.
The implications of these two cases are not good. If trends such as these continue, much valuable information on the history of life on our planet may be lost or corrupted forever. Considering the chances of
proper circumstances required for the fossilization of living matter, the amount of existing prehistoric evidence is likely to not be
large. Just as with other natural resources, the supply which exists should be protected and conserved. It will not last forever.
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© Trincoll Journal, 1997.