PERSPECTIVES ON THE COMMERCIAL FOSSIL MARKET: PUBLIC AWARENESS OF SPECIMEN ACCESS AND COLLECTION

Available information on the commercial fossil market is limited to newspaper and magazine articles and a modicum of peer-reviewed literature. This research project attempts to enrich the existing scholarship on fossiliferous topics such as value and access. The paleontological sciences have experienced a recent surge in media coverage as the commercial fossil market becomes a publicly recognized phenomenon. The headlined 2012 legal case of United States of America v. One Tyrannosaurus Bataar Skeleton caused friction among academics, collectors, and even the public. The escalating debate between academic paleontologists and commercial collectors over specimen access calls for new research approaches. The efficacy of US vertebrate fossil legislation is a contested issue within the greater paleontological community because public restrictions do not extend to private property; therefore, private land access may fall to the “highest bidder”. The complex relationship between capital-driven fossil collecting and public museums calls for a voice in the museum-going public, who are subject to science access issues. Two surveys have been conducted for this study: 1) a survey for the public, available to visitors to the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History, and to online participants; and 2) a survey for self-identified members of the paleontological community. Preliminary results indicate that this community‘s ideas for the future of fossil management are about commitment to the discipline, not polarity. Trends are emerging from the public survey that demonstrate public familiarity with and concern for the issues at hand. The goal of this study is to determine what museum visitors and other members of the public know about the commercial fossil market, and how they perceive the future of paleontological logistics in the United States.