Fossil poachers are undermining science and fooling enthusiasts

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Measuring eight metres long and probably weighing about a tonne, irritator roamed what is now Latin America, approximately 110 million years ago.

Irritator’s long snout indicates it most likely lived off fish, as did its cousins in the spinosauridae family, a group of predatory dinosaurs that included some of the largest carnivores ever to have walked the earth.

Classified as irritator challengeri in 1996, “Challengeri” was a nod to Professor Challenger’s character in Arthur Conan-Doyle’s novel, The Lost World. “Irritator” refers to a darker side of this specimen’s history.

The palaeontologists who conducted the initial work on the only known fossil of this dinosaur found the skull had been significantly tampered with by commercial fossil hunters. The task of restoring the skull caused the scientists so much irritation that they named the dinosaur in recognition of this painstaking work.

It’s a struggle met by palaeontologists the world over, as illegal digs and unscrupulous commercial fossil hunters undermine crucial scientific research.

Despite having dominated every continent for 150 million years, only 1,000 species of dinosaur have so far been identified, and many of these have been based on partial fragments.

More than 170 years after the first dinosaur was classified by Richard Owen, scientists are still making discoveries that can dramatically alter our entire perspective on these extinct creatures.

Only recently did Matthew G Baron and a computer programme, called TNT, use data from the world’s fossil collections to completely reimagine the dinosaur family tree, potentially undoing almost 200 years of scientific dogma in the space of five minutes.

Mongolia’s Gobi Desert is one of the richest deposits of dinosaur remains on the planet and has turned out an array of fascinating new finds, including the world’s largest dinosaur footprint.

Yet this unique area is under threat as untrained locals take to the international black market in fossils, hacking at the ground with pick axes, often destroying valuable and irreplaceable remains.

It’s a surprisingly widespread practice, that has world-leading palaeontologists such as the University of Alberta’s Philip J Currie very concerned. “It is very sad to see skeletons that in some cases are destroyed by pick axes just so the poachers can retrieve the teeth, claws or whatever else they feel will fetch them the best dollar for the smallest amount of effort,” he says.

“We have even found specimens that were worth collecting but did not have time to do it, so we covered them up and disguised the sites. When we returned the following years, the specimens had been dug up.”

It may not be as destructive as the ancient Chinese practice of grinding down fossils for use as medicines “from the dragon” but extraction and subsequent manipulation by untrained commercial fossil hunters can do serious harm to incredibly rare fossils.

In the case of irritator, not only was the snout artificially elongated by commercial fossil dealers, the illegal exchange of the specimen meant the exact location of its discovery has never been identified.

Another instance occurred when a Polish-Mongolian expedition working in Mongolia’s Nemegt Formation in the mid-Sixties uncovered two gigantic 2.4-metre long arms, the largest associated with any bipedal dinosaur. What these striking limbs were attached to remained a mystery for almost 50 years.

“The rest of the skeleton had been eroded away so we really did not know what the rest of the animal looked like and it was one of those animals that we were always looking for,” says Currie.

“In 2009, we found a poached specimen where the poachers had collected the skull, hands and feet of what we realised was deinocheirus. We now knew what this dinosaur was related to at least.”

This particular example has a happy ending, as the exact fossils that had been stolen were later found in Europe.

Even well preserved fossils that enter the black market may have already lost considerable value to the scientific community. In a study known as “taphonomy”, palaeontologists analyse what happened to a living organism between the point of death and its burial and fossilisation. The information can tell scientists a lot about the environment that the dinosaur or other prehistoric organism lived in.

In addition to being assistant professor in the Department of Geoscience at the University of Calgary, Darla Zelenitsky helps the US Department for Homeland Security track and recover smuggled fossils around the world.

“One of the biggest issues with fossil poaching is that the site where the fossil was originally found is usually unknown and thus information related to the age of the fossil, the environment in which the animal lived, and the other organisms that lived in the ecosystem at the time are all lost,” Zelenitsky tells me.

“The loss of this context can render fossils useless to science as such information is vital to a comprehensive study of the fossil organism and its ecosystem.”

That is, if scientists and national agencies are able to retrieve the fossils at all. Most of the black market fossils end up in private collections, without being studied by professionals, or viewed by the general public.

Twenty twelve saw one of the most high-profile cases concerning a stolen dinosaur specimen, when a near-complete tarbosaurus skeleton appeared in a Manhattan auction catalogue.

A large member of the tyrannosauridae family, tarbosaurus could be up to 10 metres long and weigh about five tonnes, slightly smaller than its more famous cousin, tyrannosaurus rex. Like the T-rex, they lived towards the end of the dinosaur’s time on earth, in the late cretaceous, roughly 70 million years ago.

The $1m (£796,400) sale of the specimen peaked the interest of Mongolia’s then minister of culture, sport and tourism, Oyungerel Tsedevdamba, as well as several sceptical palaeontologists.

Tarbosaurus, meaning “alarming lizard”, has only ever been found in the Nemegt Basin. Under Mongolian law it is illegal to remove fossils from the country, leaving the culture minister and her colleagues to speculate as to how it had found its way to an auction in New York.

In United States vs One tyrannosaurus bataar skeleton, Mongolia’s President Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj successfully sued for the return of the skeleton. The fossil was ceased and the dealer arrested, eventually serving three months of jail time for the smuggling of this specimen as well as two oviraptors and a Chinese flying dinosaur.

Described by the US Department for Homeland Security as “clearly one of the most exceptional, if not the most exceptional” examples of cultural property repatriated to a foreign government, the tarbosaurus was flown back to Mongolia, where it has become the central attraction of its new natural history museum.

At the time of his arrest, Eric Prokopi was described as a “one-man black market”, but unfortunately for palaeontology, he was only a small part of it.

In a bizarre twist, the actor Nicholas Cage was later caught up in Mongolia’s efforts to bring home their prehistoric heritage, having unknowingly purchased a stolen tarbosaurus skull for $276,000 in 2007. Cage voluntarily handed over the skull, which had been sold to him by a gallery in Beverly Hills purporting its authenticity.

The relatively recent burst in poaching activity is believed to have started with the sale of the world’s most complete tyrannosaurus rex skeleton, known as Sue. Sold to Chicago’s Field Museum for $8m in 1997, the landmark auction showed there was money to be made in excavating dinosaurs.

Although it is hard to measure, the black market for fossils is understood to have grown since the 90s, with specimens typically originating from Mongolia and China.

“International law is a little inconsistent when it comes to fossil poaching,” warns Currie.

“Technically it may be illegal to import poached fossils into many countries, but once they are inside those countries then they are treated as if they are legal and can be bought and sold without interference.”

The system relies on the country of origin and the country where the fossils have been smuggled to having an import/export agreement. The United States has repatriated several Mongolian specimens since the 2012 tarbosaurus incident.

Zelenitsky is optimistic about the role of better education and enforcement of existing laws in the future.

“Media attention has certainly brought the issue to the forefront, in particular the case of the tarbosaurus skeleton that was seized in the USA a few years ago and subsequently repatriated to Mongolia,” she says. “Illegal fossils bought by Hollywood stars have also educated the public on the potential issues of buying such fossils.

“Areas of most concern have been places like Mongolia, Argentina, and China, all of which have relatively strict laws with respect to the export of vertebrate fossils. At least in Mongolia, for example, there seems to have been a reduction in the amount of fossil poaching in recent years, perhaps in part due to the enforcement of laws in markets like the USA.”

While public awareness might be improving at the “demand” end, at the supply end officials in Mongolia face considerable difficulties in getting their message across to local people who might become involved in the trade.

“Education is a good start,” Currie advises.

“Although the original Mongolian laws were from 1925, I think most people in the country had forgotten about them. And additional laws to protect fossils had been passed but not enforced.

“The big problem is that Mongolia is a big country with an enormous border.”

Part of the task to enforce has fallen to Surenjav Munkhsaikhan, a herder and park ranger who is looking after an area of rich fossil deposits.

Speaking to Ben Dooley, Munkhsaikhan told Phys.org that she’s the sole guardian of a 24,700-acre area of desert where fossil poaching has been taking place in recent years. She does so on the back of an old motorbike, but “really wants some drones” for better surveillance.

Mongolia’s other mineral wealth, its reserves of coal, copper and gold have delivered strong economic growth for the country over the last seven years. But a fall in commodity prices has taken its toll on what is still a very poor country, and it received a $5.5bn IMF-backed loan last month.

A sharp commodities slump, coupled with a fall in foreign direct investment and a widening deficit means cash-strapped Mongolia may find it difficult to police its vast desert and the irreplaceable natural wonders that lie underneath it.

Perhaps surprisingly, given international interest in natural history and the money that can be made from selling and exhibiting prehistoric remains, very little in the way of financial or practical help has been offered to Mongolia. “There doesn’t seem to be as much financial sympathy for animals that are already extinct,” Currie says. Institutions and individuals express their concern, but the funds have not been forthcoming.

Baron’s new research underlines how much there is yet to learn about these animals, with the data now suggesting dinosaurs could have emerged slightly earlier than thought, and that the first of their kind might have evolved in the Northern hemisphere, rather than South America, as previously thought.

But with actors willing to spend as much as £185,000 on a single Mongolian tarbosaurus skull, and the next Jurassic World film set to bring in more than £1bn when it debuts next year, palaeontologists might be hoping some of the funds generated by these extinct creatures could be used to protect their future.