Building a quantitative framework to measure the "scientific value" of fossils

化石记录为了解过去生命的多样性、生物学、生态学和进化提供了一个独特而直接的窗口，为理解现代生物多样性的起源和主要模式以及环境变化将如何影响生物多样性提供了至关重要的见解。一个备受瞩目、有争议和情绪化的当前话题是重要化石标本的私人所有权。大部分的关注来自科学信息的感知损失，因为私人收藏的标本通常无法向公众和/或用于科学研究。尽管存在这种争议，但没有定量框架来确定化石标本的科学价值，因此，可能失去的价值。这也意味着没有定量和客观的方法来确定哪些化石应该优先购买，以供认可的博物馆收藏。我们将通过创建一种新方法来量化任何大型化石标本的科学价值来应对这一挑战。我们的新指标（“科学价值”指数）将评估元数据的完整性（例如，发现的地理和地层位置已知的精确度），以及标本的完整性，质量和独特性。我们将在一项独一无二的试点研究中使用这种新方法，以衡量伦敦自然历史博物馆的著名私人收藏与国家（公共）收藏中选定的关键生态系统群体的科学价值。我们将集中我们的试点研究化石（鱼龙，菊石，昆虫和植物）从早侏罗世黑文泥灰岩成员，在侏罗纪海岸在英国。黑文泥灰岩段是研究的理想单位，因为它是高度富营养化的，产生了极其多样的动物群和植物群，并在过去的两百年里进行了大量的采样，因此存在重要的公共和私人收藏。作为世界遗产的一部分，它也得到了多个遗产管理机构的支持，并受到化石收集和管理规则的重大变化，这些规则通过历史塑造了收藏品的性质。我们将使用这种新的方法来确定私人收藏目前未知的潜力，以告知我们的进化史，古生态学，埋藏学和分类学的理解。我们的数据集还将使我们能够确定随着时间的推移不断变化的化石收集实践和政策对藏品性质和科学知识的影响，并与遗产管理机构一起评估侏罗纪海岸目前化石管理策略的有效性，并确定增加科学调查机会的解决方案。该项目将为未来的研究建立一个平台，以应对私人古生物学收藏，商业化石贸易以及化石立法和遗产管理的作用和效力的关系的学术合作的复杂挑战。

The fossil record provides a unique and direct window into the diversity, biology, ecology, and evolution of past life, providing crucial insight for understanding the origins and major patterns of modern biodiversity and how it will be impacted by environmental change. A high profile, controversial and emotive current topic is the private ownership of significant fossil specimens. Much of the concern arises from the perceived loss of scientific information because specimens in private collections are generally inaccessible to the public and/or for scientific study. Despite this controversy, no quantitative framework exists to determine the scientific value of fossil specimens and thus, the value of what may be lost. This also means that there is no quantitative and objective way of determining which fossils should be prioritised for purchase for public collections in accredited museums.We will address this challenge by creating a new method to quantify the scientific value of any macrofossil specimen. Our new metric (the "scientific value" index) will assess the completeness of the metadata (e.g., precision with which the geographic and stratigraphic location of the find is known), as well as the completeness, quality and uniqueness of specimens. We will use this new method in a one-of-a-kind pilot study, to measure the scientific value of selected key ecosystem groups in prominent private collections versus the national (public) collection at the Natural History Museum, London. We will focus our pilot study on fossils (ichthyosaurs, ammonoids, insects and plants) from the Early Jurassic Black Ven Marl Member, on the Jurassic Coast in the UK. The Black Ven Marl Member is the ideal unit for study as it is highly fossiliferous, yields an extremely diverse fauna and flora and has been intensely sampled over the past two hundred years so significant public and private collections exist. As part of the World Heritage Site, it is also supported by multiple heritage management bodies and been subject to significant changes in fossil collection and management rules that have shaped the nature of collections through history. We will use this new approach to identify the currently unknown potential of private collections to inform our understanding of evolutionary history, palaeoecology, taphonomy and taxonomy. Our dataset will also allow us to identify the impact of changing fossil collection practices and policies through time on the nature of collections and scientific knowledge and together with heritage managing bodies evaluate the efficacy of current fossil management strategies on the Jurassic Coast and identify solutions to increase access for scientific investigations. This project will build a platform for future research addressing the complex challenges of academic collaboration on private palaeontology collections, the commercial fossil trade and relationships to the role and efficacy of fossil legislation and heritage management more widely.