Skinner Award

The Society of Vertebrate Paleontology (SVP) was founded in the US in 1940 for people with an interest in vertebrate paleontology; by 2014 it had about 2,000 members internationally, and holds annual meetings, mostly but not all in North America. It states exclusively educational and scientific purposes, with the objective to "advance the science of vertebrate paleontology and to serve the common interests and facilitate the cooperation of all persons concerned with the history, evolution, comparative anatomy, and taxonomy of vertebrate animals, as well as field occurrence, collection, and study of fossil vertebrates and the stratigraphy of the beds in which they are found." SVP is also concerned with the conservation and preservation of fossil sites. SVP publications include The Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, The SVP Memoir Series, The News Bulletin, The Bibliography of Fossil Vertebrates and most recently Palaeontologia Electronica.

SVP considers that "vertebrate Fossils are significant nonrenewable paleontological resources that are afforded protection by federal, state and local environmental laws and guidelines", and that scientifically important fossils, especially those found on public land, should be held in the public trust, preferably in a museum or research institution, where they can benefit the scientific community as a whole. Paleontological Resources Preservation Act. S. 546 and H. R. 2416 were introduced in the US Congress with the support of SVP. Many amateur fossil collectors and dealers consider such policies to breach their rights. It has also been argued that there are too few professional paleontologists to collect and preserve fossils currently exposed to the elements, and that it is therefore essential that private citizens be allowed to collect them for the sake of their preservation.

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