Re: paleonet Burgess Shale Fossil Theft

[Peter Paul Smolka <smolka@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Tue, 4 Sep 2001 Pristis@aol.com wrote:

> Date: Tue, 4 Sep 2001 14:13:47 EDT
> From: Pristis@aol.com
> Reply-To: paleonet@nhm.ac.uk
> To: paleonet@nhm.ac.uk
> Subject: Re: paleonet Burgess Shale Fossil Theft
> 
> This is such silly-business.  It constantly amazes me how self-important 
> paleontologists can be!  This is just a rock that is missing from a 
> mountain-top.  How many of these worm impressions does it take to make this a 
> "tragedy"?  Get real, guys, get some perspective!
> 
> Think of this loss of a worm impression, if it is really a theft, as an 
> analogy for the "war on drugs" in our society.  You publicize the stuff, you 

Dear Harry,

a diamond, even if stolen, is just carbon.

A book, even if torn into pieces, is just paper
(to save the information scanning is an appropriate method so the
book itsself is not needed any more).

A large animal, even if tortured, is for about 70% "just
water" (but we have for good reasons laws to prohibit this).

I do know that people feeling like "classical fossil collectors" sometimes
appear unusual - no doubt about it but:

If, what is very rare, documents of our own history (our heritage so to
say), including your own disappear (like Burges shale specs.) it is
not so nice (so: I am NOT a fossil collector but as well as we have
some rare paintings hanging in Louvre, Eremitage or Museum of
Modern Art, we have also some fossils that are very special).

To give you an easy comparison: The Burgess shale fauna compares
to the first buildings around 1776 (if there are any,my knowledge on
that is limited) in the US.

You may of course have any opinion on anything.

I hope however I could give an analogy regarding the Burgess shale fauna.

Best regards, Peter

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Dr. Peter P. Smolka
University Muenster
Geological Institute
Corrensstr. 24
D-48149 Muenster

Tel.: +49/251/833-3989   +49/2533/4401
Fax:  +49/251/833-3989   +49/2533/4401
E-Mail: smolka@uni-muenster.de
E-Mail: PSmolka@T-Online.de
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