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Dinos for Sale
MAY 2005
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In Learn More the National Geographic magazine team shares some of its best sources and other information to expand your knowledge of our featured subjects. Special thanks to the Research Division.
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 Did You Know?
Some 10,000 years after woolly mammoths disappeared from the Siberian steppes—victims (many experts say) of slaughter by early humans, climate change, and disease—the hunt for their valuable ivory continues.
Since prehistoric times mammoth ivory has been used by a variety of cultures for objects ranging from utilitarian needles, awls, and harpoons to decorative bracelets, beads, and carvings. In France mammoths were drawn on the walls of caves; in Siberia their tusks and bones were used to frame houses. Today the trade in mammoth fossils includes wealthy buyers who covet the best tusks for their collections and practitioners of traditional Chinese medicine who grind low-grade ivory into powder for use in remedies.
Demand for mammoth ivory has increased in recent years, since the decline of the African elephant led to a global ban on most of the elephant-ivory trade in 1989. The sale of fossil ivory has been touted as a good alternative, since it doesn't endanger any species. Advocates note that it's plentiful—an estimated ten million mammoths are buried under the Siberian tundra, and there are likely to be millions more in China—but paleontologists counter that fossils aren't an infinite resource and that when taken by fossil hunters, valuable scientific information can be destroyed.
Debate aside, how can one tell modern elephant ivory from fossil mammoth ivory? According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, if ivory is crosscut and the surface is sanded and polished, a distinct crosshatch pattern emerges. If the angle of the crosshatches is less than 90 degrees, the ivory is elephant; if the angle is more than 90 degrees, the ivory is mammoth—and can be legally transported across most international borders.
–Kathy B. Maher
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Related Links
The Society of Vertebrate Paleontology
www.vertpaleo.org
The Paleontological Society
www.paleosoc.org
These organizations are in the forefront of international efforts to preserve fossil sites. Anyone seriously interested in fossils—including paleontologists, students, artists, preparators, educators, and hobbyists—will find excellent resources at these websites.
Association of Applied Paleontological Sciences
www.aaps.net
A professional association of fossil dealers and collectors, the AAPS was organized in 1978 to promote ethical collecting practices and cooperative liaisons with academic paleontologists and the museum community.
Yukon Beringia Interpretive Center – Woolly Mammoth
www.beringia.com/02/02maina2.html
Learn more about the woolly mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius) and find links to paleontology and archaeology resources at this website.
Dino Russ's Lair
www.isgs.uiuc.edu/dinos
Want to know what hunting for fossils is like—and where to find a dig? Visit this website, click on Dinosaur Digs, and Dino Russ (Russell J. Jacobson of the Illinois State Geological Survey) will tell you.
Chicago's Field Museum
www.fieldmuseum.org/sue/default.htm
The Tyrannosaurus rex that sold for a staggering 8.36 million dollars in 1997 has captivated millions of museumgoers and helped researchers reconstruct how tyrannosaurs might have lived and died. What's new with "Sue"? Check here to find out!
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Bibliography
Cadbury, Deborah. Terrible Lizard: The First Dinosaur Hunters and the Birth of a New Science. Henry Holt and Company, 2002.
Cohen, Claudine. The Fate of the Mammoth: Fossils, Myth, and History. Trans. William Rodarmor. University of Chicago Press, 2002.
Jaffe, Mark. The Gilded Dinosaur: The Fossil War Between E. D. Cope and O. C. Marsh and the Rise of American Science. Crown Publishers, 2000.
Long, John A. The Dinosaur Dealers—Mission: To Uncover International Fossil Smuggling. Allen and Unwin, 2003.
McGowan, Christopher. The Dragon Seekers: How an Extraordinary Circle of Fossilists Discovered the Dinosaurs and Paved the Way for Darwin. Perseus, 2002.
Wallace, David Rains. The Bonehunters' Revenge: Dinosaurs, Greed, and the Greatest Scientific Feud of the Gilded Age. Mariner Books, 2000.
Wolberg, Donald, and Patsy Reinard. Collecting the Natural World: Legal Requirements and Personal Liability for Collecting Plants, Animals, Rocks, Minerals, and Fossils. Geoscience Press, 1997.
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NGS Resources
Quammen, David. "Was Darwin Wrong?" National Geographic (November 2004), 2-35.
Turner, Alan. National Geographic Prehistoric Mammals. National Geographic Books, 2004.
Gore, Rick. "The Rise of Mammals." National Geographic (April 2003), 2-37.
Achenbach, Joel. "Flesh and Bone: A New Generation of Scientists Brings Dinosaurs Back to Life." National Geographic (March 2003), 2-33.
Sereno, Paul. Paul Sereno: Digging for Dinosaurs. National Geographic Books, 2003.
Monastersky, Richard. "The Rise of Life on Earth: Pterosaurs, Lord of the Ancient Skies." National Geographic (May 2001), 86-105.
McGough, Kate. Fossils. National Geographic Books, 2001.
Rattini, Kristin Baird. "Dino Hunting." National Geographic World (December 2000), 12-16.
Webster, Donovan. "Debut Sue: Chicago's Field Museum Unveils the World's Most Famous T. Rex." National Geographic (June 2000), 24-37.
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