外刊每日精读 Cretaceous capitalism

外刊每日精读 | Cretaceous capitalism
文章脉络
【1】背景引入：化石的私人收藏需求旺盛
【2】是好是坏：化石的私人收藏导致其科学价值受到质疑
【3】理智态度：不应对化石的商业化持敌对态度
【4】理由论证：古生物学一直依赖探矿者和私人收藏家
【5】理由论证：现在在拍卖会上出售的大多数化石都来自美国的私人挖掘
【6】理由论证：私营单位根据价格信号来填补缺口
【7】担忧分析：害怕科学家和公众被挤出局并非完全没有道理
【8】正确方案：与其让私人市场消失，不如规范市场让其蓬勃发展。

经济学人原文
dinosaurs：Cretaceous capitalism
Why trade in fossils is good for science
【1】The great auction houses of America and Europe often sell masterpieces by long-dead artists to a grey-haired crowd. They also serve the booming demand for actual fossils. In 2020Christie’s sold “Stan”—one of the most complete Tyrannosaurus rex specimens ever discovered—for a record-breaking $31.8m. In April “Trinity”, a composite of three T. rex specimens, fetched $6.1m at the
Koller auction house in Zurich—one of six dino-lots to have breached the
$6m threshold since “Stan” was sold. At the end of July Sotheby’s is due
to auction off another nearly complete specimen.
【2】The buyers are typically rich collectors (Leonardo DiCaprio, a Hollywood actor, has an interest in dinosaur skulls). That alarms many palaeontologists, who fear that museums and other scientific institutions are being priced out of the market
by individuals who will lock their collections away. Even when scientists are granted access to specimens held privately, many journals have in recent years refused in protest to publish the resulting research.
【3】The antagonism of these scientists towards commerce is misplaced.
A thriving market for fossils should lead to more discoveries that—if the trade is appropriately regulated—will benefit science and the public.
【4】Palaeontology has always leaned heavily on prospectors and private collectors. Mary Anning, one of the field’s pioneers, attained celebrity status in Victorian England after she discovered the first fossil specimens of ichthyosaurs and plesiosaurs (marine contemporaries of the dinosaurs) eroding out of
the fragile coastal cliffs of Dorset in south-west England, known as the “Jurassic
coast”. The tongue-twister “She sells sea shells on the sea shore” is supposedly
a reference to Anning’s prolific collection and sale of marine fossils.
【5】Today most fossils sold at auction come from America. Once discovered there, they belong to the landowner and can be legally traded. In many other
countries, fossils automatically become the property of the state. The advantage of encouraging the “dinosaur cowboys” of Montana, Wyoming and the Dakotas—which share a big geological deposit—to get digging is that once fossils are exposed, they are as vulnerable to wind, rain and tide as they once were to being munched by a theropod. As Dorset’s cliffs collapse, for example, new fossils constantly appear, but can be lost as erosion continues. Scientists often lack the resources to find, collect and preserve every fossil with scientific value before it is destroyed by nature.
【6】The private sector plugs the gap by responding to price
signals. prospecting first boomed after “Sue”, another famous T. rex specimen, was sold to Chicago’s Field Museum for $8.3m in 1997. The recent spate of sales
is prompting another rush for bones today. It is not always true that the resulting hoards end up out of sight. “Stan” was bought by the Abu Dhabi Department of Culture and Tourism and is due to go on display in 2025. From Tampa to Copenhagen, many privately owned fossils are on show at museums or soon will be, much as the world’s best art galleries often hang privately owned pieces on loan.
【7】Fears of crowding out scientists and the public are not entirely without merit. Sometimes specimens do vanish after being bought anonymously. But nationalising the ownership of fossils does not make the desire to buy and sell them disappear. Instead, it pushes the trade underground. The black market is a bigger threat to science than legitimate trade. Smugglers have much
lower standards than auction houses,
frequently damaging or destroying specimens, and stolen fossils are even less likely to end up in museums.
【8】There are ways to preserve the value to the public of privately owned fossils. Governments could write rules insisting that the discovery of fossils and who owns them is catalogued. They could require specimens to be made available for study, or ensure that museums can make casts. And—although auction houses already demand assurances regarding the provenance of fossils—they could set in stone minimum standards for excavation and handling, to allay fears
that prospecting might become a Wild West. It is better to regulate the market and let it thrive than to force it towards extinction.
长难句：
原文：Mary Anning, one of the field’s pioneers,attained celebrity status in Victorian
England after she discovered the first fossil specimens of ichthyosaurs and plesiosaurs (marine
contemporaries of the dinosaurs) eroding out of the fragile coastal cliffs of Dorset in south-west England, known as the “Jurassic coast”.
分析：在这个句子当中，Mary Anning是句子的主语，attained是谓词，宾语是celebrity status。

one of the field’s pioneers是Mary Anning的同位语。

after做连词引导时间状语从句，从句中she为主语，discovered为谓语，而the first fossil specimens of ichthyosaurs and plesiosaurs是宾语，eroding out of是现在分词做后置定语，修饰限定宾语部分，known as
the “Jurassic coast”是过去分词做后置定语，修饰限定the fragile coastal cliffs of Dorset。

译文：玛丽·安宁（Mary Anning）是该领域的先驱之一，她发现了第一个鱼龙和蛇颈龙（恐龙的海洋同时代物种）化石标本，这些化石是从英国西南部多塞特脆弱的海岸悬崖上
侵蚀出来的，该悬崖被称为“侏罗纪海岸”，由此她便在维多利亚时代的英格兰声名显赫。