Finding Fossils: Where Academic Research, Citizen Science, and Commercial Fossil Hunting Intersect

In Springerville, Arizona, near where I now live, is a small dinosaur museum with academic connections and big dreams founded by paleontologist Douglas Wolfe and his wife Hazel --the White Mountain Dinosaur Exploration Center. After experiencing the rich geological history of the area in which I now live and then visiting the dinosaur museum and meeting Doug and Hazel, I have become more interested in paleontology, particularly as it connects with citizen science. Then, this morning I came across a recent article in an online news source in Montana, Last Best News, for which one of my old friends writes: "Fossil Hunter Nate Murphy back in the news." Author Ed Kemmick links to several articles about Nate Murphy, a commercial fossil hunter in Montana who has a somewhat shady reputation. One of the problems of any honest fossil hunter or paleontologist is being able to protect fossil-rich areas from exploitation and vandalism. I think of the Petrified Forest National Park near where I live, and the problems with people picking up pieces of petrified wood. Or the fossil shops in Montana where one can purchase slabs of rock with the imprints of ancient marine animals. So I started thinking of how citizen science, paleontological research, and commercial fossil hunting intersect and decided to begin reading more about the subjects. On this page,  I am listing links for my own purposes, to have a place on my blog on which to update what I discover about the intersections (or not) between citizen science, academic science, and commercial, for-profit, fossil hunting.

Public Library of Science: PLOS
One of the stumbling blocks to citizen science (or to any non-expert person interested in exploring topics in science) and even to scientists researching and publishing in their own area of expertise is the pay wall of science publications. PLOS, the Public Library of Science, is attempting to remove that stumbling block by making research accessible through Open Access publication.

PLOS was founded to catalyze a revolution in scientific publishing by providing a compelling demonstration of the value and feasibility of Open Access.

Innovation is an open revolution in progress. What began as a ripple with the goal to make research accessible and free has propagated into a current of Open Access – and now Open Science – moving through the scientific community to provide millions of readers around the world increasing opportunities to make important, positive impacts on global health, scientific discovery, policy and education. (link: https://www.plos.org/innovation)

And PLOS does have a blog for the paleo community: http://blogs.plos.org/paleocomm/

Citizen Science in Paleontology 

White Mountain Dinosaur Exploration Center
Founders: Doug and Hazel Wolfe
link: http://www.whitemountaindino.com/

"Father and Son Discover New Dinosaur." Matt Mygatt. Los Angeles Times. September 7, 1997. link: http://articles.latimes.com/1997/sep/07/local/me-29648

"Zuniceratops christopheri: The North America Ceratopsid Sister Taxon Reconstructed on the Basis of New Data." Douglas G. Wolfe, James I. Kirkland, David Smith, Karen Poole, Brenda Chinnery-Allgeier, and Andrew McDonald.  Lower and Middle Cretaceous Terrestrial Ecosystems, 1998. Published also in  New Perspectives on Horned Dinosaurs: The Royal Tyrrell Museum Ceratopsian Symposium.
eds., Michael J. Ryan, Brenda Chinnery-Allgeier, David A. Eberth. Indiana University Press, 2010.  Available online at Academia.edu: 
https://www.academia.edu/3977069/Zuniceratops_christopheri_n._gen._and_n._sp._a_ceratopsian_dinosaur_from_the_Moreno_Hill_Formation_Cretaceous_Turonian_of_west-central_New_Mexico

"The Creature from the Zuni Lagoon." Heather Pringle, Grant Delin. Discover. August 1, 2001. link: http://discovermagazine.com/2001/aug/featzuni

"New Dinosaur Species Found." Wired. June 18, 2001. link: http://archive.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2001/06/44599

"On a Hadrosauromorph (Dinosauria: Ornithopoda) From the Moreno Hill Formation (Cretaceous, Turonian) of New Mexico." Andew McDonald, Douglas G. Wolfe, and James Kirkland. Late Cretaceous Vertebrates from the Western Interior: Bulletin 35. Eds. Spencer G. Lucas, Robert M. Sullivan. New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science. January 1, 2006. Online at Google Books.

"Zuni Basin Paleontological Project." Arizona Museum of Natural History. link: http://arizonamuseumofnaturalhistory.org/for-educators/paleontology/zuni-basin-paleontological-project

"New Mexico's Peculiar, Two-Horned Dinosaur." Brian Switek. Smithsonian.com. October 18, 2011. link: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/new-mexicos-peculiar-two-horned-dinosaur-110896440/

"Zuniceratops." Wikipedia. Updated 5 July 2016. 
 link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zuniceratops

Commercial Fossil Hunting 

Nate Murphy
Judith River Dinosaur Institute: http://www.montanadinosaurdigs.com/

"Is Nate Murphy Holding a Dinosaur for Ransom?" Jacqueline Ronson, for Inverse, July 5, 2016. link: https://www.inverse.com/article/17806-sauropod-dinosaur-discovery-montana-fossil-hunter-paleontology-nate-murphy

"Discovery and Deception: Spectacular Finds, Criminal Charges." Ed Kemmick. The Billings Gazette. May 3, 2009. link: http://billingsgazette.com/news/state-and-regional/montana/discovery-deception-spectacular-finds-criminal-charges/article_3135e99b-7c7e-51a7-a7f0-975d770ad079.html

"Discovery and Deception: Bones unearthed, deceit discovered." Ed Kemmick. The Billings Gazette. May 4, 2009. link: http://billingsgazette.com/news/state-and-regional/montana/discovery-deception-bones-unearthed-deceit-discovered/article_f6e549dc-669b-58ce-b349-9b86d50e54ef.html

"Discovery and Deception: Raptor finds, turtle tales." Ed Kemmick. The Billings Gazette, May 5, 2009. link: http://billingsgazette.com/news/state-and-regional/montana/discovery-deception-raptor-finds-turtle-tales/article_f1eb1737-1f74-5a12-a2a6-5bebc946d43e.html

"Discovery and Deception: A bogus bio, a derailed career." Ed Kemmick.  The Billings Gazette. May 6, 2009. link: http://billingsgazette.com/news/state-and-regional/montana/discovery-deception-a-bogus-bio-a-derailed-career/article_01c0dcb8-57e2-5fd1-9775-d04304a07407.html

to be updated