Fossil collector

The quarry on the Blumenberg in Solnhofen limestone, which is officially open to private collectors

Title page of issue 1 of the German Internet community Steinkern.de published magazine Der Steinkern from 2008

As fossil collectors , sometimes amateur paleontologist , one is collector of fossils called.

Fossil collectors mostly pursue collecting out of an interest in geological history as a hobby, often without appropriate academic training, i. H. without a degree in geology (see →  autodidact ). They are therefore to be distinguished from paleontologists and other geoscientists and bioscientists who collect fossils for research purposes by profession and store them in scientific collections of universities and natural history museums or are responsible for these as curators themselves. A few fossil collectors acquire so much expertise in the course of their hobby that they work closely with “real” scientists and publish their own scientific work. Many geologists and paleontologists actively seek contact with local fossil collectors, as they often have an excellent knowledge of local geology and the location of fossil sites. Also, the actual scientific significance of a number of fossil-locals was only recognized after discoveries made by amateur collectors. An example of this is the Messel pit near Darmstadt, which has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1995 .

In Germany there are numerous local associations of fossil and mineral collectors, but there is no umbrella organization. In Switzerland the fossil collectors are organized in the Swiss Association of Emitters, Minerals and Fossil Collectors , in South Tyrol in the Mineral and Fossil Collectors Association South Tyrol . Many fossil collecting societies publish regular journals.

literature

• Horst Wegner: The fossil collector . Ott, Thun / Munich 1965. 4th edition 1976, ISBN 3-7225-6204-X .
• Günter Krumbiegel, Harald Walther: Fossils. Collecting, preparing, determining, evaluating . dtv, Munich 1977, ISBN 3-423-03178-6 .
• Karl Dietrich Adam: Fossils, collect, recover, prepare, conserve, store, exhibit . Theiss, Stuttgart 1983, ISBN 3-8062-0350-4 .

Web links

• steinkern.de - The German-speaking community of fossil collectors for fossil collectors
• fossiliensammeln.de
• Page about fossil collectors on the website of the German Paleontological Society

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Fossil Search: Hunters in the Pit in the taz , accessed on April 28, 2020.