Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
The paleontological and geological research required to paint a
complete portrait of the animals and environment that existed at Auca
Mahuevo has just begun. Our view through the window to the past is
still murky, and our efforts to see more clearly will no doubt require the
participation of more geologic and paleontologic specialists. But over
the coming years, as new expeditions and analyses are conducted, we
anticipate that Auca Mahuevo will once again prove magical and
reveal more precious secrets and treasures from the history of life for
us to ponder and investigate.
For more discoveries to be made, however, the site must be pro-
tected from poaching and vandalism. In the past decade, with fossils
fetching handsome prices at auctions and curiosity shops, paleontol-
ogists have seen their sites looted and excavated, resulting in a great
loss of information. Fossils provide unique clues to reconstruct the his-
tory of ancient life, but as this topic illustrates, many of those clues
reside in the geological context of the fossil. Without this accompa-
nying data—such as the exact rock layer in which it was found, the
type of rock containing it, the precise location of the site, the associ-
ated fossil biota, and the environmental setting—a fossil loses much
of its scientific value. This information must be preserved for posterity
so that future generations of paleontologists can reinterpret the fos-
sils in light of subsequent discoveries. Museums and their paleontol-
ogists not only have the training to collect both the fossils and their
contextual information but also the infrastructure to protect that
information for the future. These institutions make the fossils and
their supporting data available to outside researchers and the public
as well. Amateurs and commercial collectors, on the other hand,
often recover minimal information about the geological and paleon-
tological context of a fossil when they collect it, focusing only on the
intrinsic value of the fossil. Furthermore, fossils recovered by amateurs
and commercial collectors are often left outside the custodial care of
an institution that can protect them for future generations, making
them unavailable to researchers and the public.
As we mentioned earlier, we found disturbing evidence during our
2000 expedition that commercial or amateur fossil collectors had
visited the site and destroyed some nests to collect eggs. If such
activities become more widespread across the site, the important
fossils and scientific evidence needed to answer the remaining mys-
