1. Comment on the letter of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology (SVP) dated April 21, 2020 regarding 'Fossils from conflict zones and reproducibility of fossil-based scientific data': Myanmar amber
- Author
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Jacek Szwedo, Eugenio Ragazzi, Jouko Rikkinen, Julia Bechteler, Anna Pint, Joachim T. Haug, Harald Schneider, Hans Kerp, Carolin Haug, Alexander Nützel, Xavier Delclòs, Jason A. Dunlop, Phyo Kay Khine, Alexander R. Schmidt, Bo Wang, Lars Hedenäs, Antonio Arillo, Christian Klug, Lida Xing, Ed Jarzembowski, Elena A. Jagt-Yazykova, Alexander Gehler, Christian Neumann, Jürgen Kriwet, Andrew J. Ross, Leyla J. Seyfullah, Kathrin Feldberg, Christian Foth, Dany Azar, Danilo Harms, Barry W.M. van Bakel, Paul A. Selden, Alexander G. Kirejtshuk, Mike Reich, Ulrich Kotthoff, Rolf G. Beutel, Francisco J. Vega, Vincent Perrichot, René H.B. Fraaije, André Nel, Eva-Maria Sadowski, D. S. Kopylov, Vladimir Blagoderov, Jeffrey D. Stilwell, Ledis Regalado, Enrique Peñalver, Ryan C. McKellar, Günter Schweigert, Rodney M. Feldmann, Matúš Hyžný, Frederick R. Schram, Viktor Baranov, Mónica M. Solórzano-Kraemer, Yongdong Wang, John W. M. Jagt, Géosciences Rennes (GR), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Observatoire des Sciences de l'Univers de Rennes (OSUR)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université de Rennes 1 (UR1), Université de Rennes (UNIV-RENNES)-Université de Rennes (UNIV-RENNES), Université de Rennes (UR)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Observatoire des Sciences de l'Univers de Rennes (OSUR), and Université de Rennes (UR)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université de Rennes 2 (UR2)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement (INRAE)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université de Rennes 2 (UR2)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement (INRAE)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)
- Subjects
010506 paleontology ,Cretaci ,History ,amber ,Geological heritage ,Myanmar ,mining ,Patrimoni geològic ,01 natural sciences ,Paleontología ,03 medical and health sciences ,Ambre ,Citizen science ,Vertebrate paleontology ,10. No inequality ,Vice president ,ComputingMilieux_MISCELLANEOUS ,030304 developmental biology ,0105 earth and related environmental sciences ,0303 health sciences ,Cretaceous Period ,Paleontology ,Amber ,Evolución ,Law ,[SDU.STU.PG]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Earth Sciences/Paleontology ,Amateur ,amber, Myanmar, mining - Abstract
Motivation for this comment Recently, the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology (SVP) has sent around a letter, dated 21st April, 2020 to more than 300 palaeontological journals, signed by the President, Vice President and a former President of the society (Rayfield et al. 2020). The signatories of this letter request significant changes to the common practices in palaeontology. With our present, multi-authored comment, we aim to argue why these suggestions will not lead to improvement of both practice and ethics of palaeontological research but, conversely, hamper its further development. Although we disagree with most contents of the SVP letter, we appreciate this initiative to discuss scientific practices and the underlying ethics. Here, we consider different aspects of the suggestions by Rayfield et al. (2020) in which we see weaknesses and dangers. It is our intent to compile views from many different fields of palaeontology, as our discipline is (and should remain) pluralistic. This contribution deals with the aspects concerning Myanmar amber. Reference is made to Haug et al. (2020a) for another comment on aspects concerning amateur palaeontologists/ citizen scientists/private collectors.
- Published
- 2020