Re: paleonet superiority!

[Jonathan Adrain <jonathan-adrain@xxxxxxxxx>]

I think it's very easy to have miscommunication when collectors pass 
material to paleontologists for scientific study.  Genuine bad faith 
is I think extremely rare, but very common is an overoptimistic view 
on the part of the person supposed to be doing the description of 
just when they're going to get around to it.  This results maybe in 
broken assurances and things languishing.  It is also fairly common, 
though, for collectors to have unrealistic expectations of just how 
soon things are likely to happen.  It's just my opinion, but I think 
the most satisfactory arrangement is that if a collector  finds 
something of scientific interest, the most important and most telling 
thing they can do is place it in the public trust by donating it to 
and having it accessioned by a museum or staffed university 
collection.  Most repositories will issue a letter of thanks and 
acknowledgement which can be used for tax purposes, and the 
collector's efforts can be recognized without the material 
disappearing into limbo in some paleontologist's office.  That makes 
paleontological procrastination a separate issue, though still an 
annoying one.  Paleontologists procrastinate.  It's what we do:)

J