THE POTENTIAL AND PITFALLS OF COMMERCIAL PALEONTOLOGY FOR OUTREACH IN THE GEOSCIENCES

Paleontology’s preeminent role as a popular science affords rich opportunities for expanding engagement in earth and evolutionary sciences. Alongside popular culture portrayals of paleontology, the commercial sale of fossils is one of the most prominent and promising methods for paleontological outreach. Commercial fossil collection has a history as long as paleontology itself. Foundational figures Mary Anning and Charles H. Sternberg offered their finds to private collectors and scholars alike, while the celebrated rivalry between Edward Drinker Cope and O.C. Marsh amidst the backdrop of the Gilded Age was only possible through the work of commercial fossil collectors who formed the backbone of the great American paleontological institutions. This integration between commercial extraction and scientific research largely evaporated over the course of the twentieth century; in turn, the scale and scope of the fossil industry expanded. Today, commercial fossil vendors, and avocational collectors, vastly outnumber institutionally-affiliated researchers, providing a central avenue for geoscientific outreach.

Recent debates on commercial paleontology have largely been propelled by charismatic vertebrate fossils, eliding the diversity of the commercial fossil trade while minimizing the impact of outreach and engagement. The illegal fossil trade and loss to science hold outsized importance for large vertebrate fossils, while these represent a comparatively small portion of the fossil industry. Collaborative commercial collecting practices, currently upheld and advocated by the Association of Applied Paleontological Sciences (AAPS), allow for scientific outreach while supporting the science itself.The contributions of avocational collectors to science have recently received greater recognition, though the history and enduring accomplishments of commercial paleontologists have trailed in recognition. Of course, critics of commercial paleontology raise legitimate challenges to the industry.

By examining the dichotomous nature of commercial paleontology through case studies of successful scientific outreach alongside current challenges, I show that private fossil sales have been and can continue to be balanced with scientific interests to promote outreach and engagement.