Moroccan fossil trade

International interest in Moroccan fossils began in the early 20th century, with the French geologist Louis Gentil discovering trilobite fossils near Casablanca in 1916. Through the 20th century, local populations exploited Morocco's significant quantities of fossils by selling excavated specimens to collectors and tourists. The sale of fossils complemented the wages of local miners, and also provided a source of income for Moroccans in marginalized communities. Although the growth of the fossil market was slow at first, the industry grew rapidly in the late 1980s and early 1990s as fossil collecting became increasingly common, especially among young people. and the fossil industry is worth more than $40 million annually. Some mining businesses, such as the Moroccan company GSMC, combine traditional mining for raw materials, such as lead, copper and zinc, with the harvest and preparing of mineral and fossil specimens. The Moroccan fossil trade is a worldwide enterprise, with the largest importing market being the United States. Other large markets include Europe (particularly Germany), Australia and Japan. Most of the profit in the industry is earned by retailers and middleman, rather than the preppers and diggers in Morocco, who usually get paid very little. Economically, the industry does not only benefit Morocco, but also importers in Europe, America and Asia. == Legality ==

Moroccan fossils can only be collected and exported with a permit from the competent authorities. Specifically, Article 116 of the 2015 Mining Code provides that permits are required for the extraction, collection, and commercialisation of fossils, meteorites, and mineralogical specimens. An application decree adopted in 2019 further specifies the procedures relating to these permits. The export of fossils is governed by Decree 1308-94 of April 19, 1994 which makes the export of certain kinds of goods subject to an export permit. Palaeontological objects are included under customs nomenclature number 97.05.00. However, Moroccan laws do allow artisanal mining by locals, which is exploited by the fossil industry. Moreover, Morocco is a party to the 1970 UNESCO Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property (ratified on February 3, 2003) and the 1995 UNIDROIT Convention on Stolen or Illegally Exported Cultural Objects (ratified on August 3, 2022). However, the laws are often insufficient or not applied in practice. According to a 2019 article by the organization ENACT Africa, it is possible that authorities are complicit, given the large amount of fossils that pass through Moroccan customs. given the lack of other available jobs. New fossil legislation was proposed by the Ministry of Energy, Mines and Sustainable Development in 2019, with a draft decree suggesting the establishment of three different legally recognized categories of fossils: 'regular' specimens that can be excavated and sold without the need of authorization, quota-regulated specimens that require authorization and unique specimens that can only leave the country if loaned for scientific purposes. == Fossils and excavation ==

(straight-shelled) nautiloid cephalopod fossils from Morocco.|left Mining for fossils in Morocco is a labor-intense and delicate process since fossils, intended to be sold as scientific curiosities, or in cases even as natural works of art, have to be retrieved from the ground undamaged. Typically, teams of people, many of them local Berber tribesmen with deep regional roots, work in small trenches and pits with picks, chisels and shovels. Fake trilobites are often well-made, molded with molds made from actual fossil specimens, Making fake fossils is not illegal in Morocco. Passing fakes of as real is illegal, but the act itself being legal creates an overall legal grey area which allows the practice to endure. == Impact on scientific research ==

Some experts worry that the Moroccan fossil industry "exploits Morocco's paleontogical heritage". Another cause of concern is that associated fossil material, such as partial skeletons, are often overlooked by commercial collectors since they do not employ field jackets or lab preparation. As such, fossil bones that would have been significant if associated together may be disassociated over the course of excavation and sold individually. Because of poor collecting practices, many fossils are damaged and there is often no information recorded on stratigraphy, sedimentology or location. This is not a universal rule, however, as some Moroccan collectors do record relevant information. Fossils that are believed by the Moroccan fossil diggers to not hold any commercial value are often neglected and become unrecoverable. On the positive side, paleontologists have made many important discoveries based on the fossils uncovered in Morocco, such as the identification of hundreds of new species of trilobites and other animals both vertebrates and invertebrates. Without the markets and industries that support the excavators and preparators in Morocco, a large number of these new species would likely never have been uncovered. In cases, new species have been named in honor of people in the fossil industry, such as the trilobite Asteropyge tahiri and the artiopod Eoduslia brahimtahiri, both named after Brahim Tahiri, a Moroccan fossil exporter and the owner of the only private fossil museum in Morocco. == Fossil repatriation efforts ==

In recent years, the Moroccan government has been increasingly proactive in pursuing the return of trafficked Moroccan fossils to their country of origin. • During a ceremony on 13 May 2024, Chile handed back 117 fossils which had been seized between 2017 and 2022 to Morocco. • In early 2022, Morocco recovered the skull of a 56 million-year-old crocodile skull from the U.S. where it had been seized alongside around 7,000 other artifacts in a raid on a farm in Indiana in 2014. • On 26 February 2021, France returned around 25,000 objects of archaeological and palaeontological interest to Morocco. These items had been confiscated by the Perpignan and Arles customs brigades in 2005 and 2006. • In April 2017, the skeleton of a Zarafasaura oceanis, a 66 million-year-old plesiosaur, was returned from France. It had been withdrawn from auction at Hôtel Drouot in late February 2017. == References ==