Crimes Involving Fossils

[sunsplash1]

Police raid nets dinosaur fossils worth millions

Federal police have seized dinosaur eggs and fossils worth millions of dollars during raids on three properties at Mandurah, south of Perth.
They say the raids, conducted last week, netted more than 1,300 fossils, including fish fossils from China believed to be up to 300 million years old.
Federal police are yet to decide if charges will be laid over the seizure.
Kevin Wohlers from the federal Department of Environment and Heritage says police carried out the raids after a request from the Chinese Government.
"It's a large seizure to be sure," Mr Wohlers said.
"The Australian Government is very committed to ensuring that both our natural and cultural heritage - and not only Australia's but in a global sense - is preserved for the benefit of current and future generations.
"The Australian Government is very pleased to be able to assist China with this seizure."
Mr Wohlers says the range of fossils seized in the raids is extensive.
"They range from fossil fish to dinosaur eggs to rhino skulls, basically the whole gamut of fossils, fossil dinosaurs and the like," he said.

Thursday, June 17, 2004. 10:45am (AEST)

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200406/s1133779.htm

Plenty more Dinosaur smugglers to go

 

[ramonmercado]

Stolen dinosaur fossils recovered

The fossils were part of a track once trodden by dinosaurs

Stolen fossilised dinosaur footprints, 200 million years old and from a protected site, have been found after being advertised on eBay.
The three-toed prints, from coastline near Barry in the Vale of Glamorgan, had been offered for sale online and in a shop at Lyme Regis in Dorset.

The Countryside Council for Wales (CCW) realised they could have come only from the Bendrick Rock site.

A man described as a local amateur geologist has been cautioned by police.

The police had worked alongside the CCW and the fossils were recovered after a raid on the shop in Lyme Regis.

Dr Bill Wimbledon, a senior geologist for the Countryside Council for Wales (CCW) said they began to investigate after they were tipped off that fossils were being advertised for sale.

"They were described as being the right age and with a bit of detective work we looked and worked out they could only have come from here," he said.


The site has been badly damaged by the thefts

"Bendrick Rock is one of Britain's most important areas for fossil footprints.

"The damage to the site is obvious - a large area of rock has been quarried away, continuous track ways broken up and individual prints cut up and taken away for sale.

"It's very sad. They took away the positives and left us with the negatives.

"We are very pleased to have tracked them down and reclaimed them, and they will now go to a safe home in a museum.

"Most people understand the great importance of SSSIs (sites of special scientific interest) and respect this, but there is a minority - a few rogue and commercial collectors and dealers - who want only to exploit sites.

"We will continue to be vigilant to protect what is international geological heritage, so that we can ensure Wales remains one of the best open-air museums in the world, accessible to all," he added.

Sgt Ian Guildford of South Wales Police said a man from the Cardiff area, whom he described as a local amateur geologist, had been cautioned for criminal damage and theft from a protected site.

Fossils can be legally collected and sold - but not if they are from protected or restricted sites.

Sgt Guildford said the dealers involved in this case had claimed they had received the fossils from legal sources.


http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/wale ... 299016.stm

 

[feen5]

The should lock those buggers up for life. I mean just what goes through some peoples minds, do they just wake up some morning and think 'oh i'm bored today think i'll go out and destroy a national tresure thats been around for 200 million years and try to flog it on e-bay'. Not only have they destroyed a site thats of world wide significance (dinosaur footprints are very rare), they will make it much harder for people to visit sites like this in future. Oh it makes my blood boil when i read things like this. Hang 'em high and damn the concequences........

Ok i'm off for a lie down...

 

[ramonmercado]

Ah now, no need to hang 'em; I'd just set dogs on 'em. Perhaps I need a cool drink and a lie down as well...

 

[sunsplash1]

Shoot the bastards!

 

[rynner2]

All a sad symptom of the 'me' generation.

"I have got to have this for myself", or "I can get money for cigs, booze, sex, etc, by flogging this".

Selfish bastards, who aren't happy to share something so precious with the rest of the world.

 

[maximus otter]

Dragon bone thieves: How China’s centuries-old custom of eating animal fossils drives an underground trade

In rural areas of remote Chinese provinces, law enforcers are cracking down on the clandestine excavation and trade in some of the country’s ancient treasures: animal fossils known as dragon bones.

The fossils, which have been used in traditional Chinese medicine for at least a few centuries, are believed by some to have therapeutic properties, including the ability to calm the nerves and halt bleeding. They were documented in one of China’s oldest medical treatises.

Gansu’s public security department last month announced nine people had been arrested in the countryside of the northwestern Chinese province, and more than 400kg (880lbs) of fossilised ancient vertebrates confiscated.

Dragon bone fossils mainly comprise the skeletal remains of large ancient mammals such as the three-toed horse, rhinoceros, deer, cattle, elephant as well as fossilised elephant teeth.

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/sci...ating-animal-fossils-drives-underground-trade

maximus otter