Messel Pit

[august]

I understand that Darwinus massilae was found in the Messel Pit, and then purchased from a dealer by the Oslo Natural History museum.  Messel is a world heritage site.  Does anybody know how it is that fossils are available for purchase?  Surely the Germans aren't happy about it, no?

[august]

Aha -- answered my own question (just had to wait for the Wikipedia update)

The site was slated to become a landfill.  There was a fight to preserve it, but in that time large number of fossils were extracted by private collectors.  In 1996 there was an amnesty so that the fossils could be restored to the scientific community at large.