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

Why Support Crazy?

So I've been thinking and writing about why not to vote Republican, and at the top of my list today is that voting Republican seems to be voting for crazy. Here are some examples:

• Top of the list--the birther nonsense. Really. The Iowa GOP platform "calls for presidential candidates to 'show proof of being a ‘natural born citizen’ of the United States'" because there are many really unbelievably idiotic people who think Barack Obama is not a 'natural born' citizen. [h/t, "Political Animal.] There is ol' Sheriff Joe Arpaio sending his posse to Hawaii to take a gander at the President's official birth certificate. (But since one of the "posse" members is writing a birther conspiracy book with birther conspiracist Jerome Corsi, you can bet he won't believe what he sees. Otherwise, he won't be able to sell that book, huh?) And then there's Arizona's secretary of state blustering about keeping President Obama off Arizona's ballot in November unless Hawaiian officials send him some more proof of Obama's citizenship. Um....Hawaiian officials have already verified Barack Obama's birth certificate, idiot. Of course, Arizona Secretary of State Ken Bennett is also a Republican and Mitt Romney's Arizona co-chair, so he has a vested interest in the birther histrionics.
• Then there's the rejection of science, which I had meant to address in a stand-along post, but I just don't have the energy to write about how stupid I think Republicans are for their know-nothingness. Recent example? The House Republican vote to eliminate the American Community Survey, a survey that "has been around in some form since 1850, either as a longer version of or a richer supplement to the basic decennial census" and that serves as the "country’s primary check for determining how well the government is doing — and in fact what the government will be doing." According to The New York Times, "[i]t is the largest (and only) data set of its kind and is used across the federal government in formulas that determine how much funding states and communities get for things like education and public health." The article describes other important uses of this survey, too. And here are the stupid comments by one Republican house member, Daniel Webster, "a first-term Republican congressman from Florida who sponsored the relevant legislation":

  “This is a program that intrudes on people’s lives, just like the Environmental Protection Agency or the bank regulators..... “We’re spending $70 per person to fill this out. That’s just not cost effective,” he continued, “especially since in the end this is not a scientific survey. It’s a random survey.”

  Let's parse crazy: programs that intrude on peoples' lives--Really. Does anyone remember acid rain? Love Canal? lead poisoning? mercury poisoning? If you don't, look up those phrases in Wikipedia. Yes, the EPA affects people's lives, idiot man. Oh, and bank regulators? Have we so easily forgotten the last financial crisis which exploded during the Bush administration and the aftereffects with which we are still coping? 
  not a scientific survey, but a random survey--Really. A random survey IS a scientific survey. Who is voting for people like this?
  
  
  And don't get me started on the whole climate change denial of the Republican party. That craziness alone deserves a separate blog post. I'm just not sure I've got the patience to go there.
  
  
  These are not people I want leading my country in tough times. But evidently a lot of people think crazy is just hunky-dory.
  
  

  links

  "President Obama's Long Form Birth Certificate", at www.whitehouse.gov

  
  

  "Zombie Birtherism: The Conspiracy that doesn't Know It's Dead," Eric Lach, TPMMuckraker

  
  

  "Hawaii verifies Obama's Birth For Arizona Secretary of State"

  
  

  Left Action's Mitt Romney is a Unicorn petition
  
  "Time to Wean the Birthers"

Anthrax, Climate Change, and Cloning: Animals in the News

• Ted Turner's bison herd has anthrax. Eighty-five head of bison have been destroyed:"85 of Ted Turner's Bison Destroyed," in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
• A South American stork has been spotted near Marigouin, Louisiana: "South American Stork Spotted in Louisiana," in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
• Increasing abundance of jellyfish suggests problems with the world's oceans. Scientists are saying that "the increasing reports from around the world" indicate "that the trend is real, serious and climate-related": "Stinging Tentacles Offer Hint of Oceans' Decline," in The New York Times.
• The Gulf Stream is bringing many more tropical fish north. These fish abandoned by the Gulf Stream in northern waters become a boon for aquarium collections. They may also suggest effects of climate change: "For Aquariums, the Small Fry Swept North Become a Big Catch," in The New York Times.
• A California woman has her pet dog cloned in South Korea. This is the first successful commercial cloning of a dog: "Pet Cloning Service Bears Five Baby Boogers," in The Guardian.