Still, many fossils are not worth enough for police to pursue, no matter how priceless they are to science. Rogers said he would have to convince foreign police that the smugglers may be moving other contraband, such as guns and drugs. A multiagency task force called Operation Rock Fish, named after the most common fossil found in Wyoming, has netted several hundred suspects since its creation in 1993. Rogers said arrest figures are unavailable because the various agencies have not coordinated them. The best way to crack down on fossil stealing is to catch thieves red-handed, but that is difficult in the West.
Paleontologists complain that laws against fossil theft have lagged behind the times.
Unlike Civil War cannons or other cultural artifacts, the theft of fossils from public land falls under a statute that penalizes the theft of government property. No maximum punishment exists because the penalty hinges on a fossil's value. Consequently, scientists say most fossil thieves get no more than a slap on the wrist. Marion Zenker, a commercial fossil dealer for the South Dakota-based Black Hills Institute, questions police claims about the extent of fossil smuggling. If there were a huge black market out there, we would know about it.