WITH their meagre salaries often going unpaid, some palaeontologists in
Russia are being lured into collaborating with the trade in illicit fossils,
experts fear. The problem is damaging cooperation between Russian scientists and
their Western colleagues.
Large numbers of fossils are known to be leaving Russia. In one recent
incident, a fossil dealer was stopped at Vyborg on 21 December trying to drive a
van loaded with half a tonne of fossils across the Russian-Finnish border.
According to Viktor Petrakov of Russia鈥檚 Ministry of Culture, the dealer,
Joachim W枚rdemann, had proper papers for 174 kilograms of mammoth fossils,
but not for 373 kilograms of other material, including fossil cave bears from
the last ice age, meteorites and trilobites.
鈥淗e has been over the border so many times, he probably just got careless,鈥�
says Arkady Zakharov, who was formerly a scientist at the Palaeontological
Institute in Moscow, Russia鈥檚 premier research centre in the field. Zakharov now
runs a company called Russkiye Fossilii, which brokers fossil exports.
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When contacted at his office in Halstenbek, Germany, W枚rdemann, who is
still waiting to hear if he鈥檒l be charged with smuggling, refused to talk to
New 杏吧原创.
Where the fossils seized from W枚rdemann came from is unclear. But
Western palaeontologists are becoming increasingly alarmed by the number of
scientifically important fossils going missing from Russian research institutes
and museums.
For example, specimens worth an estimated $100 000鈥攊ncluding 27
skulls鈥攈ave gone missing from the museum of the Palaeontological
Institute. The institute houses one of the world鈥檚 most important fossil
collections. In 1994, one fossil鈥攖he 240-million-year-old skull of a large
amphibian called Thoosuchus jacovlevi鈥攅nded up in
W枚rdemann鈥檚 possession in Germany.
Rupert Wild, curator of the State Museum for Natural History in Stuttgart,
recognised the skull, which still carried a partly obliterated specimen number.
W枚rdemann said he bought the skull in good faith from a third party. The
fossil has since been returned to Moscow.
The disappearance of fossils from the Palaeontological Institute鈥檚 museum has
led to bitter divisions among its staff. Many suspect that thefts which have
taken place were an inside job. The full extent of the losses may never be known
because the collection has not been completely catalogued.
The museum cannot sell anything from its permanent collections that is
considered a state treasure, says Galina Yefimenko, the institute鈥檚
international director. But it can sell material that officials decide is not
scientifically valuable. Loaning fossils to outside scientists is also
common.
Exporting fossils from Russia requires permits from customs officials and the
Ministry of Culture, as well as certification that they are not of scientific
importance. Those certifications are handled by the deputy director of the
Palaeontological Institute, Igor Novikov.
Concerns about missing fossils are affecting cooperation between Russian
palaeontologists and their Western colleagues. For example, after David Unwin,
then at the University of Bristol, raised the alarm about fossils going missing
from the Palaeontological Institute in 1994, the institute鈥檚 management
threatened legal action to secure the return of a pterosaur fossil that Unwin
had borrowed for his own research. And rumours of mafia involvement in fossil
smuggling are leading to 鈥渁 shutdown of openness among Western and Russian
palaeontologists鈥�, says one American palaeontologist.
Russian fossils can be used to earn money legitimately. Displays of dinosaur
fossils from the Palaeontological Institute have been taken on tours of Europe
and Australia. They are now on display in Kansas City, and casts are being
exhibited in Los Angeles. Each display can earn up to $20 000 a
month鈥攅nough to pay the salaries of almost 300 Russian scientists.
But even these activities have attracted controversy. Last year, the Russian
interior ministry looked into accusations that the institute鈥檚 director, Alexei
Rozanov, had mishandled the proceeds. Rozanov denied the allegations, and the
investigation did not lead to any charges.
Institute officials declined New 杏吧原创鈥檚 requests for an
interview with Rozanov, saying he was too sick. Zakharov claims the stress of
the interior ministry鈥檚 investigation ruined Rozanov鈥檚 health.