I’m a sucker for some good paleontology impropriety. I know that I shouldn’t be rubbernecking at scandalous dinosaurs, but I can’t help it; that’s just how I roll, people. So you can imagine my slightly guilty delight when I checked on the Burke Museum’s website this morning and saw a suspicious looking note about the vertebrate paleontological collection.

As it happens, the museum commissioned a report on the collection because they had some questions about the scientific integrity of it. (You can find a PDF version of the report here.) Apparently they have some suspicions about the collecting practices of Dr. John Rensberger, who has been collecting for the museum for 35 years.

Long story short–and I do recommend that you read the report, ’cause it’s pretty interesting stuff–it looks like Dr. Rensberger made two serious scientific faux pas. First off, he seems to have done a lot of his excavating without permits, sometimes going so far as to misrepresent the exact location of a dig so that he could keep his favorite spots secret. Permits for archaeological excavations have been pretty heavily required since the 1980’s.
He also had a habit of restricting access to the Burke’s collection to his friends and colleagues, even though legally they are supposed to be open to any qualified investigator. Way to alienate your peers, Dr.

Because of all of the hiding and misrepresenting, not to mention the vaguely reported data that he did make public, our fossils’, “significance to modern paleontology may have been drastically and perhaps irretrievably reduced.” That’s a shame, because we have a damn good collection of fossils, even if they are largely hidden away.

Rensberger turned over his field notebooks the other day, and hopefully a crack team of grad students will be able to help fill in some of the holes [komo]. The museum is working to correct whatever might be wrong, including returning wrongfully removed specimens to their rightful owners.

Related posts:

1. spontaneous ride along the Burke-Gilman trail
2. That time again: Bug Blast
3. aviation inflation report
4. Plants of Washington
5. Experiences make better gifts: the museum membership edition