Sacred Fossils

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Date
This week's Time magazine (in addition to a nice article on Pterosaurs)
reports on the theft of some Stegosaur tracks from a remote area in
Australian. In passing the article mentioned that the tracks were taken
from an area sacred to the Goolarabooloo and Jabirjabir aboriginal tribes,
though it did not state whether the tracks themselves were considered
sacred. Nevertheless, it caused me to wonder if there are any other known
examples of a particular fossil or fossil-bearing locality being considered
a sacred by an indigenous human population? [Note: museum curators,
professional paleontologists, and/or local rockhound clubs don't count].
Does anyone know of any examples?

Norm MacLeod



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Norman MacLeod
Micropalaeontological Research
N.MacLeod@nhm.ac.uk (Internet)
N.MacLeod@uk.ac.nhm (Janet)

Address: Dept. of Palaeontology, The Natural History Museum,
         Cromwell Road, London, SW7 5BD

Office Phone: 0171-938-9006
Dept. FAX:  0171-938-9277
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