Comments on: Comments on 20453

Post number 20453

mcwetboy — Tue, 01 Oct 2002 10:01:14 -0800

This Thursday, the Canadian Museum of Nature opens an exhibit of Asian dinosaur skeletons from the Russian Paleontological Institute. Putting Russian dinosaur collections on tour reportedly raises funds for cash-strapped scientific institutions back home, but others allege that Russia's own museums are the poorer for it, and that the money -- and fossils -- may be going astray.

By: languagehat

languagehat — Tue, 01 Oct 2002 13:04:12 -0800

Great post, mcwetboy. The last link is truly distressing, though of course not surprising -- what's surprising is that every single thing of value hasn't already disappeared from Russia. Sad, sad. (Frivolous by comparison, but -- isn't it odd that the Paleontological Institute site has a picture of St. Basil's rather than their own building?)

By: mediareport

mediareport — Tue, 01 Oct 2002 13:04:19 -0800

Wow, that last link from the Globe and Mail is very good. I can't believe the puff piece before it, written 8 months later, doesn't even *mention* the corruption and missing fossils. An even greater worry is the growing number of gaps in the backroom storage cabinets of the Moscow Paleontological Institute, where a series of mysterious thefts has triggered allegations of insider corruption. The evidence in the last link confirms the allegations pretty damn well, I think. This is a great post, mcwetboy, thanks. More evidence that the number of comments in a thread often has nothing to do with the quality of a post.

By: mcwetboy

mcwetboy — Tue, 01 Oct 2002 13:10:04 -0800

That puff piece is actually what triggered this post. Reading it reminded me that I had read the G&M article some months before, though I didn't remember that I had read it there, and then it was off to Google to find it and flesh out the rest.