Fossils and Posterity

[the Vital One]

Here are two related thoughts which have concerned me for some time:

A) As we dig up fossils, will future generations have fossils left to dig up? Are we digging up all the easy to retrieve fossils, meaning that future generations will have a much more difficult time finding and extracting them (similar to the situation with oil)?

B) Are we contaminating the fossils we are digging up? Will generations living centuries in the future, with presumably more advanced scientific methods and techniques, be stifled by our current work?

 

[essentialsaltes]

A) As we dig up fossils, will future generations have fossils left to dig up? Are we digging up all the easy to retrieve fossils, meaning that future generations will have a much more difficult time finding and extracting them (similar to the situation with oil)?

I am not an expert, but I don't think this is a significant problem. I think erosion continues to expose new fossil-bearing layers.

B) Are we contaminating the fossils we are digging up? Will generations living centuries in the future, with presumably more advanced scientific methods and techniques, be stifled by our current work?

I am still not an expert, but I don't think this is a significant problem, at least not any more. Earlier treatment may have been rough and ready, but I think the level of care is now at a point that we're probably not doing significant harm.

 

[Ophiolite]

On the first point @essentialsaltes has nailed it. The proportion of fossils collected to this time are a miniscule quantity of the total potentially accessible within a few feet of the surface of the Earth and practically speaking a non-existent quantity in terms of the total volume of fossils present somewhere in the crust. Erosion will continue to expose new troves of fossils with, or without our help.

There is no doubt that application of modern techniques, before, during and after collection, permit more information of higher quality to be collected. That said, the care of even the Victorian collector in preserving samples, is such that valuable work can be and is carried out on the large quantity of material stored globally in museums and universities.

 

[FrumiousBandersnatch]

On the first point @essentialsaltes has nailed it. The proportion of fossils collected to this time are a miniscule quantity of the total potentially accessible within a few feet of the surface of the Earth and practically speaking a non-existent quantity in terms of the total volume of fossils present somewhere in the crust. Erosion will continue to expose new troves of fossils with, or without our help.

There is no doubt that application of modern techniques, before, during and after collection, permit more information of higher quality to be collected. That said, the care of even the Victorian collector in preserving samples, is such that valuable work can be and is carried out on the large quantity of material stored globally in museums and universities.

Yes, a significant amount of new paleontological discoveries are made by studying the vast amount of fossils in collections in museum basements - much of which hasn't had more than cursory examination.