Sunday, March 17, 2013
FYI: How Do You Ship A Dinosaur Halfway Around The World?
Popular Science: Tarbosaurus bataar is going home. And the journey, though long, won't be that bad--especially for a 70 million-year-old like him (or her).
The 8-foot-tall, fully mounted Tyrannosaurus rex relative first found itself in the news last May, when it went to auction in New York. In an unusual move, the Mongolian government decided to sue, saying that the Tarbosaurus must have come from the Gobi Desert in Mongolia, as that's the only place Tarbosaurs have ever been found. (Like several other countries, though not the U.S., Mongolia considers fossils to be a part of its national heritage, and it's illegal to sell Mongolian fossils privately.) Private fossils dealer Eric Prokopi pleaded guilty to smuggling the bones in December. On February 13, a ruling from a U.S. district judge found the fossil legally free to return to Mongolia, as no other claimants stepped up after Prokopi's plea.
The story got us wondering: What's it like to ship such a large and precious specimen halfway across the globe?
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6 comments:
An interesting article. It got me thinking about how all of the items in any museum get there in the first place, which is not something I had previously considered. Of course, in theatre, we can take things apart in one location and put them back together in another, most of the time without issue. But those things are built to be disassembled and reassembled. A dinosaur skeleton is not built for this. The process must be very delicate, as the bones are very old. I imagine that much more care is taken than we sometimes take with gear we might use. So, I suppose the two fields have similar end goals in that they both are looking for people to come and see what they have created, but the presentational process seems like it would vary in specialties needed and delicacy levels.
I can honestly say I have never thought of the legal anything involving fossils. So does this legal protection extend to fossils you just happen to find while outside, if living in an area where that is common, or just to fossils found on an official dig or something like that. Also, does this mean that museums have purchased their fossils, or are they on load? Is it possible for fossils to become privately owned?
Shipping a Dino, I believe that falls into the category of things I attributed to magic. Disassemble it, take it apart and ship it, it seems a little to easy. As to the legal issues. I never really though about the legality of dinosaurs. I'm so used to seeing them in museums that I never considered that a specific country might have owned it, but it makes sense. I wonder which countries have policies regarding owning dinosaurs. If they are all on loan, couldn't a country just call back their dinosaurs when they felt like it?
I think that what is really interesting about this article is actually that Mongolia intervened and took control of the dino even when the museum is in a state of disrepair. This made me think a lot about other natural history museums around the world that have gotten artifacts centuries ago and now put them on display. Could the countries ask and get their artifacts back even though they do not have the base ways of supporting and saving the artifact? I think that it would be interesting if the USA ended up helping Mongolia find good ways of keeping this fossil safe.
When I was in Nepal the buying and selling of national artifacts was a serious concern. The government wanted to ensure that the cultural history of the country stayed in the country. I may have ignored this request on one particular occasion but I cant even imagine taking an entire dinosaur out of the country. I can totally understand wanting the fossil back because its part of Mongolia's history.
So basically it is not a big deal to ship a dead dinosaur bones to any where in the world. Yes, I do agree it is a big deal to make sure you package the dead dino appropriately but other then that no biggie, Right? Except like everything else in the world, it all depends on finding the money to actually pay for the shipping.
I did find it interesting that the U.S. does not find that Dinosaur bones are of the national heritage. I am not sure whether I think they are or are not but the fact of the matter is that it is interesting none the less.
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