Re: DS/SVP/PS Poll Results

[Una Smith <una@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Tompaleo@aol.com wrote:

>Scenario #1 involves the fossil being on "my own" property. In that context I
>have to agree with the land owner. As much as I abhor the thought of someone
>not alerting the proper scientific authorities <sic> the fossil _belongs_ to
>the land owner and NO ONE should have the authority to wrest it from him.

This depends on what "my own" property means, legally.  In many of the
western United States, I am told, the land owner frequently owns only the
surface.  Ownership of sub-surface (i.e., mineral) rights is contingent
on, among other things, paying taxes on those rights.

In an area of Scotland where I have done some field work, the land owners
own only the right to farm the land and to build and own farm structures
(including one house), and to restrict access to others.  They do not own
the land as such.

	Una Smith			una.smith@yale.edu

Department of Biology, Yale University, New Haven, CT  06520-8104