Fiction: Fossils are rare. Fact: Fossils, even vertebrate fossils, are abundant. Dr. Charles Love, geologist from Western Wyoming College, said: "Just one-half mile layer [of the Green River Formation] ... contained 12 billion fish [vertebrate fossils]. That's enough to give two [fossil fish] to every person on the planet." Or consider the 3000 elephant (mammoth) skeletons per square mile lying under the State of Nebraska's soil, estimated by University of Nebraska's Department of Vertebrate Paleontology, as quoted in a recent local newspaper (Cairo, Nebraska).
Fiction: Public lands are "raped", "pillaged", "plundered" or "poached" of fossils by "greedy" amateur and commercial collectors. Fact: Nearly all fossils, once exposed, are destroyed by the same weathering forces (wind, rain, ice and snow) that exposed them in the first place. Literally billions of fossils are destroyed by these forces every year. Any possible damage to or loss of fossils and collecting sites by careless, negligent or greedy collectors is miniscule compared to that done by mother nature herself.
Fiction: Fossils can be protected for future generations by leaving them in the ground. Fact: Fossils are only preserved for posterity if they are discovered and collected. Every possible eye and hand is needed to find and collect fossils if even a small percentage are to be saved for research and display.
Fiction: The collecting and preparatory activities of private paleontological houses drive the price of fossils beyond the reach of museums and researchers. Fact: It is precisely the previously unmet demand for teaching, research and display specimens by high schools, universities and museums that created the need for private professional earth science supply houses. Their activities have actually dramatically lowered the prices of many fossils.
Fiction: Only academic paleontologists in certain acceptable institutions can be trusted to "do" paleontology correctly. Fact: Of the 18 skeletons of Tyrannosaurus rex collected to date, all but one were discovered by amateur or professional collectors. According to eminent paleontologist Dr. Robert (Bob) Bakker, over 80% of all major paleontological discoveries are made by amateurs. Add the major discoveries made by private professional paleontologists and the percentage of major paleontological discoveries by academic scientists becomes very small.
Fiction: Paleontological resources (fossils) must be regulated the same way we regulate archeological resources. Fact: Fossils (paleontological resources) are infinitely more abundant than the remains of human beings and their culture (archeological resources), because archeology is the study of the remains of only one species (humans) and paleontology encompasses the study of the remains of all the billions of other animal and plant species that ever lived on earth.
A National Academy of Science three year study is the most comprehensive look at this issue and the conflicting views within the paleontological community to date, and the only one that involved virtually every affected group in gathering its data and arriving at its conclusions. The NAS 1987 committee report concluded that "we challenge the archeology-paleontology link and urge a different approach to the 'regulation' of fossil collecting ... that would benefit the science", that "the role of the land manager should be to facilitate exploration for and the collection of paleontological materials", and that "paleontology is best served by unimpeded access to fossils" on public lands.
In 1992, Senator Baucus (MT) introduced legislation that would ban all fossil collecting on public lands except by degreed academics and amateurs under their immediate supervision. Massive public protest killed the initial bill in committee (but read on below ...).
As a direct result of the fears created by the introduction of the Baucus Bill, the Americal Lands Access Association (ALAA) was formed by the country's two largest amateur fossil and mineral associations. In consultation with academic and private paleontologists, they authored The Paleontological Resources Preservation Act. This bill is faithful to the guidelines established by the NAS Committee on Paleontological Collecting.
But in early 2009, a version of the Baucus Bill, attached to other legislation, did actually get passed in Congress. Its fossil collecting ban supposedly applies only to vertebrate fossils. However, the word vertebrate appears only in the title, not in the text, allowing for later misinterpretation.