{"title":"Collecting dinosaurs on eroding coast - case studies from the Isle of Wight","authors":"M. Munt","doi":"10.55468/gc323","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.55468/gc323","url":null,"abstract":"The Isle of Wight is world famous for its Lower Cretaceous dinosaurs, collecting and keeping these dinosaurs on the Island comes with challenges. This short paper presents four case studies where the museum has worked with landowners, collectors and agencies to bring extraordinary finds into local public ownership, and therefore available for scientific study. Each of the selected case studies highlights the importance of due diligence and the sensitivities of working together for the public benefit. It emphasises the importance of funding acquisitions and a positive viewpoint by museum professionals towards the public, and towards commercial palaeontology.","PeriodicalId":203203,"journal":{"name":"Geological Curator","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129840229","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Acquiring fossils: a complex picture","authors":"J. Ulph","doi":"10.55468/gc324","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.55468/gc324","url":null,"abstract":"This article explains why museums should avoid acquiring fossils which lack sufficient provenance and where the circumstances are suspicious. It argues that, regardless of whether one considers fossils to be cultural property or not, the Museums Association's Code of Ethics should be followed not only in order to maintain public trust in museums but also to ensure compliance with current laws.","PeriodicalId":203203,"journal":{"name":"Geological Curator","volume":"17 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"127486700","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Introducing the revised Code of Ethics for Museums","authors":"A. Brown","doi":"10.55468/gc326","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.55468/gc326","url":null,"abstract":"The Museums Association consulted with the museums sector on changes to the Code of Ethics during 2014-5, and published a revised Code of Ethics for Museums in November 2015. The new version reaffirms 'core' ethical stances on disposal and acquisition of museum collections. It also expands the concept of museum ethics to include consideration of issues of public benefit, freedom of speech, institutional integrity and sponsorship.","PeriodicalId":203203,"journal":{"name":"Geological Curator","volume":"13 6 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"133989650","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Dodgy fossils: international legislation and the meaning of 'cultural property'","authors":"J. Martin","doi":"10.55468/gc319","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.55468/gc319","url":null,"abstract":"In our small world of palaeontology, it has ended friendships and ruined careers. Important fossils are lost to science, or are in limbo. In the wider world, people get shot or imprisoned. Through it, fortunes are made by rich people in the West, while peasant farmers in the South lose the fortunes they never had. 'It' is UNESCO 1970: The Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property. This paper looks back at the ancestry of UNESCO 1970, to suggest that its ethically inspired progenitors probably would not have wanted it to turn out the way it did. The wrong turn seems to have been in the ambiguity (perhaps intentional, certainly not articulated) of the meaning of 'cultural property' in the 1970 Convention. Merryman (1986) reviewed 'cultural property'; he explained that it has two almostopposite meanings, whose complex bases, in semantics, nationalism and money, are explored in this paper. I ruminate on how differently the word 'culture' might be understood in the minds of legislators (and politicians) in the Signatory Countries to the 1970 Convention, and speculate about how their interpretations might, from one point of view, be inadvertently ('culturally', 'lost in translation') mistaken and how, from another point of view, they might coincide neatly with national interests. Maybe UNESCO 1970 itself did turn out the way its authors intended. The purpose of the Convention's Articles was to police international trade in national and personal property, arguably in support of the principles of capitalism, as variously applied in the signatory counties - and now, nearly 50 years on, globally. Finally, I question whether fossils should be in the Convention at all; I ask: except possibly for fossil hominins, whose 'cultural' property are they?","PeriodicalId":203203,"journal":{"name":"Geological Curator","volume":"27 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"122985250","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Publish or prohibit? The ethics of publishing on privately owned fossils","authors":"P. Barrett","doi":"10.55468/gc311","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.55468/gc311","url":null,"abstract":"Fossils are a limited resource and the information they provide is critical for unraveling evolutionary history. Private collections sometimes contain fossils that can provide unique scientific insights, but vary in the levels of access that they provide to researchers. Some palaeontologists have advocated publishing on specimens in private collections to unlock critical data, but these observations cannot be verified independently unless future access is guaranteed. Technological approaches, such as CT-scanning, might provide some solutions to this apparent conflict, but do not solve all of these issues. As a core scientific principle, reproducibility should be the key criterion applied when making decisions over whether to publish on a specimen or not.","PeriodicalId":203203,"journal":{"name":"Geological Curator","volume":"57 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"124998118","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Ivory Piano Keys from Mastodons: Why Poor Anthropocentric Legislation Endangers Fossils","authors":"J. Liston","doi":"10.55468/gc314","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.55468/gc314","url":null,"abstract":"Palaeontological material and sites have faced a variety of challenges in the last half century, often due to inadequate legislation from poorly informed legislators designed for very different objects. The most common problematic scenario is for material to be assessed on anthropocentric grounds that are more traditionally applied to archaeological and art objects as 'cultural', and are fundamentally ill-suited for palaeontology. This paper highlights some of the negative consequences of bad legislation in order to explain why it is a global problem that needs to be addressed by the international palaeontological community through direct engagement with legislative bodies.","PeriodicalId":203203,"journal":{"name":"Geological Curator","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"124228580","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"40 years as a fossil prospector, collector and exhibition maker","authors":"H. Siber","doi":"10.55468/gc313","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.55468/gc313","url":null,"abstract":"Even 200 years of fossil collecting for the benefit of public and private collections has not exhausted the supply of fossils by any means. One can even argue that we have barely scratched the surface, and that the best and most important finds are still out there. The primary reason for this is that the technical means for excavating, collecting and preparing fossils have considerably advanced during the last three decades, up to the level that the present act of collecting is - under ideal circumstances - far superior to past collecting efforts. Who has the ambition, the skills, the financial resources and the legal rights to collect fossils properly? Traditionally, three groups engage themselves in the art and technique of fossil collecting: professional palaeontologists, advanced amateurs, and commercial palaeontologists. All of these groups have made significant contributions to classical and modern palaeontology and to museum collections worldwide. Recent developments regarding restrictions to collect fossils primarily target amateurs and so called 'commercials' or independent palaeontologists, and have greatly diminished the opportunities for legal fossil collecting. However, these three groups work best together if they pool their resources. Many models of cooperation exist and have proved beneficial for all parties involved. In addition, the restrictions on fossil collecting in more fossiliferous areas and countries is well meant, but essentially counterproductive. Palaeontology requires the effort and input of all three groups. Their cooperation is essential and eventually determines the amount and quality of important fossils found and saved for future generations. It is not necessary that scientifically important fossils are exclusively housed in \"public repositories\". The criterion should be accessibility for continued scientific research and not ownership.","PeriodicalId":203203,"journal":{"name":"Geological Curator","volume":"109 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"124058963","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Site-specific limitations on the use of palaeontological resources","authors":"C. Underwood, D. Ward","doi":"10.55468/gc320","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.55468/gc320","url":null,"abstract":"Palaeontological resources are used by many people for diverse purposes, and in generating a best practice model for utilisation and conservation of these sites, the requirements of all of these interested parties should be taken into account. Fossil bearing sites vary tremendously, especially in rates of depletion of the rock and fossils, frequency of visits by interested parties and the scientific significance, size and distribution of fossils therein. We argue that it is these criteria that should dictate best practice for any particular site, and in doing so a far more rational conservation strategy can be achieved.","PeriodicalId":203203,"journal":{"name":"Geological Curator","volume":"126 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"127635387","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Ivory Towers of Entitlement?: The Commercialisation of Academic Palaeontologists","authors":"J. Liston","doi":"10.55468/gc325","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.55468/gc325","url":null,"abstract":"Palaeontology suffers from divisions amongst its community, along an ostensibly motivational division between academic and commercial palaeontologists, the former not being motivated financially, unlike the latter. These divisions are particularly polarised in the United States of America. In order to discuss why this attitude exists, even when the financial division is no longer so clear, two factors are addressed: 1, latent entitlement attitudes inherent in the academic culture; 2, the commercialisation of academic palaeontology through the incentivisation of publishing, using the Chinese experience of scientific publishing as a microcosm for palaeontology globally. These factors are then dealt with as underpinning patterns of unethical - and sometimes even illegal - behaviour by academic palaeontologists.","PeriodicalId":203203,"journal":{"name":"Geological Curator","volume":"51 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132406945","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Discovery of a walrus skull on the North East Yorkshire coast: a call for clearer guidelines","authors":"J. Dunne, J. Middleton","doi":"10.55468/gc327","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.55468/gc327","url":null,"abstract":"In March 2018 the Collections Team at Scarborough Museums Trust was approached about a potentially exciting find; a possible walrus skull found by a member of the public in situ in the cliff face between Speeton and Reighton in East Yorkshire. After a preliminary investigation of the site and discussions with colleagues on the Continent the specimen was found to be of particular significance. On communication of its significance to the finder he requested the return of the specimen for sale despite the legal ownership being in question. The legal and ethical issues surrounding the discovery of such a specimen in situ by an amateur enthusiast and its subsequent removal without permission of the landowner need to be addressed. Also in need of acknowledgement are the difficulties faced by any museum professionals confronted with the potential donation of such specimens, or more complicated still, the refusal of the finder to accept lack of ownership and demand the return of material. Clear guidelines for museum professionals are essential to offer support and protection from negative publicity when the usual legal and ethical procedures are followed in such cases. No such guidelines currently exist, which we have found to our cost. The public also need to be better informed about legal ownership of material removed from our coastlines. We recommend that a dialogue should be instigated around the need for a regulatory system for geological and palaeontological material discovered by the public along the lines of the Portable Antiquities Scheme to better protect our scientific assets.","PeriodicalId":203203,"journal":{"name":"Geological Curator","volume":"93 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126213001","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}