Thieves Plundering the Dry West for Fossils

[Peter Rauch]

THIEVES PLUNDERING THE DRY WEST FOR FOSSILS
from The Associated Press

KEMMERER, Wyo. - Flying his patrol plane over the scrubland,
Steve Rogers notes five or six areas of freshly overturned earth.
He sees a faint dustcloud and veers over for a better look.

A herd of pronghorn antelope, he suspects. They are not what
Rogers is searching for aboard his high-soaring Cessna.

On this expanse of frozen terrain where 50 million years ago
tropical and subtropical plants and animals thrived along two
freshwater lakes, Rogers is hunting fossil thieves.

Protected by the vastness of the West, the looters plunder the
rich ground of fossils - hoping for perfectly preserved specimens
that typically will be displayed on rock slabs or inlaid in
countertop and floor tiles as home decor.

[See the full article at:]
Linkname: Thieves plundering the dry West for fossils
http://www.nandotimes.com/healthscience/story/body/0,1079,500165193-500209495-500968364-0,00.html

[Excerpted from:]
Date: Wed, 9 Feb 2000 10:25:12 -0500
From: inthenews <inthenews at SIGMAXI.ORG>
To: SCIENCE-IN-THE-NEWS at LISTSERVER.SIGMAXI.ORG
Subject: Science In the News