Science vs. amateurs???

Lets get some talking on here,

This has been winding me up for ages.
In the world of paleontology its the amateurs that make alot of finds and do the leg work,

Yet us amateurs cant get into quarrys and SSSI b sites but scientists can get into any sites they get all the finds??

the only reason they do this half the time is to get there names behind a find, to fulfill there egos.

Hows this fair?


Sorry just sick of amateurs been treated as second rate when we not at all!!!

The problem with SSSI's and such is that there are ALWAYS people who will spoil it, or over-hunt, as well as those who just want to turn it into their own commercial opportunity. A lot of science is ego-based (not just palaeontology), but most of it isn't that bad- apart from China, about 80% of the new finds there could be synonymised with a previous find there but for some reason over there they get some sort of pay bonus for naming new species. In terms of quarries that's usually health and safety, the owners don't want to be liable to a bunch of am's walking in and getting injured whilst professionals will have proper/full insurance through their university/museum etc.. It's still not easy for the profs to get in everywhere though!

For the legwork, the all the lecturers etc I've known do want to be out in the field hunting etc but are too busy and fieldwork does cost, which the university in this case won't subsidise. Getting the time off for them (while having big projects[I think my lecturers have to put out 3 papers-ish per year to decent journals]/teaching/field trips etc) is harder in academia than other sectors.

I agree with macro that there are always people looking to spoil something. It does infuriate me when people do not abide by site rules or leave a site in a mess for other people.
This isn't just with collectors though, a lot of people just dump stuff at sites.
On another note a lot of professionals do have a problem with earning an income on fossils, They do not earn very high wages and it does lead a lot of them to set up businesses
which do exploit some areas fossil reserves.
I have some friends whose father does a lot of dealing with madagascar and is importing a lot of ammo's from there and selling them here and abroad.

haha i dont think that at all,

Just wanting you all too talk :-)