Comment on the letter of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology (SVP) dated April 21, 2020 regarding “Fossils from conflict zones and reproducibility of fossil-based scientific data”: Myanmar amber

Abstract

Recently, the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology (SVP) has sent around a letter, dated 21st April, 2020 to more than 300 palaeontological journals, signed by the President, Vice President and a former President of the society (Rayfield et al. 2020). The signatories of this letter request significant changes to the common practices in palaeontology. With our present, multi-authored comment, we aim to argue why these suggestions will not lead to improvement of both practice and ethics of palaeontological research but, conversely, hamper its further development. Although we disagree with most contents of the SVP letter, we appreciate this initiative to discuss scientific practices and the underlying ethics. Here, we consider different aspects of the suggestions by Rayfield et al. (2020) in which we see weaknesses and dangers. It is our intent to compile views from many different fields of palaeontology, as our discipline is (and should remain) pluralistic. This contribution deals with the aspects concerning Myanmar amber. Reference is made to Haug et al. (2020a) for another comment on aspects concerning amateur palaeontologists/citizen scientists/private collectors.

<i>†</i><i>Cretolixon</i> – a remarkable new genus of rhopalosomatid wasps (Hymenoptera: Vespoidea: Rhopalosomatidae) from chemically tested, mid-Cretaceous Burmese (Kachin) amber supports the monophyly of Rhopalosomatinae

“…We are well aware of the ethical problems linked to the study of Burmese amber that originates from excavation sites in Kachin State, Myanmar (e.g., Sokol, 2019). We agree with the general intentions of two recently published opinions, i.e., Haug et al (2020) and Szwedo et al (2020), and declare that all Kachin amber pieces included in this study are deposited in public collections and have been collected and subsequently traded before November 2017 -the time when the military troubles in the amber mine area of Kachin State started (Human Rights Council, 2019…”

“…V. Lohrmann et al: †Cretolixon -a remarkable new genus of rhopalosomatid wasps of crickets (e.g., Perkins, 1908;Hood, 1913;Gurney, 1953;Lohrmann et al, 2014;Miller et al, 2019) -a habit that has seemingly remained unchanged since the mid-Cretaceous (Lohrmann and Engel, 2017).…”

Eco-morphological diversity of larvae of soldier flies and their closest relatives in deep time

“…Most of the specimens in amber originated from Myanmar (“Burmese amber”), and most represent a single morphotype (“morphotype 1”). Working with Burmese amber requires special ethical consideration; for details, see the ongoing discussion ( Haug et al, 2020a ). All these specimens were purchased on ebay.com from different sellers and are now deposited at the collection of the Palaeo-Evo-Devo Research Group, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Munich, Germany (PED) (PED-0152, PED-0349, PED-0362, PED-0031, PED-0041, PED-0243, PED-0113, PED-0025).…”

Colonial history and global economics distort our understanding of deep-time biodiversity

“…In fact, Mongolia and Morocco, along with other countries such as China, Mexico and Brazil, have been the victims of fossil trafficking and parachute research, especially vertebrate fossils, for decades (17). Similarly, issues of legality and ethics surrounding Myanmar amber have not deterred researchers from pursuing their endeavors in the field (26,30,31).…”