For the past decade, paleontologists have been using a unique window to peer into the past: amber, which preserves in exquisite detail insects, plants, tiny lizards, and bits of larger organisms.
Recent papers have analyzed samples taken from one of the world's richest amber deposits, dating to 99 million years ago during the height of the dinosaur. The country is not united by politics. According to a new study, paleontological research has been helped by the conflict inMyanmar, which has created opportunities for questionable mining, trade, and collecting practices.
The new paper claims that almost all recently studied amber can be linked to the nation's unrest. The region of conflict is related to amber according to co-author Nussabah Raja Schoob. She wants the paper to make paleontologists rethink how they work. According to the paper, almost all publications lack researchers fromMyanmar itself, possibly because the few paleontologists there haven't been able to study exported specimen
David Grimaldi, the curator of the amber collection at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, says the study is thorough, well done, and needs to be done more often. Some researchers think its analysis is flawed.
There is broad agreement that there is a valuable scientific resource in the country. Fine details and soft tissue are preserved as if ancient organisms are still alive. The amber deposits in the country go all the way back to the dinosaur age. According to study co-author Emma Dunne, the deposit is the one that preserves pieces of dinosaur habitat.
The journey of a piece of amber from the ground to a starring role in a scientific paper is fraught with ethical conflicts. Most of the amber mines in the country are located in the north of the country. The amber trade is worth $1 billion a year to both sides. The mines were taken care of by the military of the country. The military was found guilty of genocide and crimes against humanity.
There are areas of conflict in the north of the country. The Hukawng Valley contains many amber mines. The amber is then transported to China where it is sold to the highest bidder.
The majority of amber from Kachin is transported to the Chinese border town of Tengchong. Some pieces are sold in bustling markets as jewelry, while others are sold in the same markets to private buyers. Pieces that preserve bits of animals can go for a lot of money.
Fossil material was not allowed to be permanently transported out of the country. amber is considered a gemstones that can be legally exported.
The society of vertebrate paleontology released a letter on 21 April 2020 calling for a moratorium on publishing studies of the amber obtained after the military took over the mines. journals didn't change their policies A second letter was sent to journal editors last year calling for a halt to the publication of papers about fossil material obtained after a military coup. Guidelines for conducting research with amber have been released.
The amber publication record was tracked in the new paper by Dunne and Raja Schoob. The team used certain terms and categories in the Web of Science to find publications that used nonamber paleontological material from Myanmar. They calculated publication trends for the papers.
The number of amber publications increased gradually. The team reported today in Communications Biology that it exploded in that year.
After Chinese amber mines were tapped out, a lot of amber research papers came out.
There was a shift in the top countries publishing amber papers. The United States had 69 amber papers. China had 417 papers after that year. The study of Burmese amber has been done by China. The commercial market was being monopolized by them.
According to the researchers, the rise in amber research can be linked to political, legal, and economic changes. China tapped out its amber mines around the same time as neighboring Myanmar did, Raja Schoob says. China has become the largest producer of papers. It gave a lot of information about how we got to where we are. There has been a lot of interest in China.
Other researchers say the boom in amber research is just a reflection of academic interest. The new paper is very comprehensive according to Shuo Wang. She says there are some mistakes. A group of researchers from China were inspired by a conference in 2013). The number of papers was boosted by a special issue of the journal in 2015.
Dunne thinks those factors could be to blame for the rise in amber publications. She doesn't think scientific interest alone led to the huge increase in research output. The amber trade with China gained steam in the early 2010s according to the authors. Dunne says that the accessibility of the specimen is important.
Paleontologists should restrict access to new amber for ethical reasons. She believes that scientists should be able to study materials obtained in the past even if they don't have documents. Since the beginning of the 2000s, the Fushun amber institute has been collecting and studying amber from the country. She says that it is not possible to provide purchase records and import and export certificates because amber has been transferred many times before it enters the hands of scientists. It will be a huge loss if the papers can't be published because of ethical issues.
The ethical and legal issues have been discussed in journals that have stopped accepting papers onMyanmar amber. There is a point in paleontology where it is time to take a step up with policy. Nature Portfolio revised its policies last year to make sure that parachute science, which involves foreign scientists working in other nations with little local involvement, was not allowed.
A new paper looked at who wrote it. Three amber publications had co- authors from Myanmar. parachute science is pervasive according to them. It is very difficult to get to the amber mines in the country. He says that theMyanmar paleontologists don't have the expertise to work with amber. He suggests that foreign researchers get in touch with theMyanmar embassies for proper paperwork. It will probably take a while, but it is a win-WIN situation. To foster equitable collaborations, the country with the expertise should invite theMyanmar scientists to their institutions with scholarships.
Buying specimen in a market is not ideal. She and other groups are trying to get permission from the government to do research in the mines, but so far they have not been granted permission.
The controversy overMyanmar amber has galvanized efforts to rethink ethical standards. She says that this is a time when what we do has a big impact on the world.
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