More than 527 dinosaur genera have been discovered up to date, but how many of these fossils have been traded in the black market? There is no way to track how many have been traded, smuggled, or seized, or how many will continue to be traded in the black market. Although some may argue that people who are not paleontologists should be able to dig up these hidden treasures, the cons outweigh the pros, making the subject very controversial. For instance, a con would be how “…Overzealous collecting can seriously contravene or even ruin ongoing research by removing specimens and damaging site stratigraphy” (“It's Time to Stop the Fossil Trade in Its Tracks – and Here's How.” The Conversation,). But why are fossils such a big deal? What even are
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Many questions surface after investigating the aforementioned fossil. Maybe how old it is, where it’s from, or if it has any common characteristics of modern animals. If a fossil is in perfect condition, many of these questions would be answered, and would explain the possible evolution of animals, and an understanding of how life used to be in the era in which it lived in. But finding a perfectly preserved and untouched dinosaur fossil is rare, more like a dream for paleontologists. In reality, most fossils excavated are missing parts. Like when an official in Mongolia confiscated a smuggled slab of rock with fossils, they sent it to be studied by paleontologists. It was an incredible find, not one, but three juvenile, 70 million year old oviraptorosaurs. But soon they realized that “…the fossil’s protective plaster jacket was constructed incorrectly. About half of the jacket cannot be removed without destroying the fossils beneath…” (Mongolian Dinosaurs and the Poaching Problem, paragraph 3). As if that wasn’t enough, the poachers cut off their tails. If it wasn’t for the poachers, paleontologists would have been able to answer many if not more questions they’d have, now, they can’t ever see the rest of the oviraptorosaurs’s, which slows the processes of
Many questions surface after investigating the aforementioned fossil. Maybe how old it is, where it’s from, or if it has any common characteristics of modern animals. If a fossil is in perfect condition, many of these questions would be answered, and would explain the possible evolution of animals, and an understanding of how life used to be in the era in which it lived in. But finding a perfectly preserved and untouched dinosaur fossil is rare, more like a dream for paleontologists. In reality, most fossils excavated are missing parts. Like when an official in Mongolia confiscated a smuggled slab of rock with fossils, they sent it to be studied by paleontologists. It was an incredible find, not one, but three juvenile, 70 million year old oviraptorosaurs. But soon they realized that “…the fossil’s protective plaster jacket was constructed incorrectly. About half of the jacket cannot be removed without destroying the fossils beneath…” (Mongolian Dinosaurs and the Poaching Problem, paragraph 3). As if that wasn’t enough, the poachers cut off their tails. If it wasn’t for the poachers, paleontologists would have been able to answer many if not more questions they’d have, now, they can’t ever see the rest of the oviraptorosaurs’s, which slows the processes of