Why do we collect fossils and who were the first fossil collectors? Cretaceious fossils have been found in a cave in Northern Spain alongside the Neanderthals that were living there 46,000 years ago. Were Neanderthals collecting fossils and if so why? This week Susie and Rob examine those claims and discuss fossil collecting and the recent surge in private trade in dinosaur fossils.

Because we are children, we also giggle at possibly one of the earliest fossils collected, the Erfoud Manuport as well as the Makapansgat pebble.

The paper is "Were Neanderthals the First Collectors? First Evidence Recovered in Level 4 of the Prado Vargas Cave, Cornejo, Burgos and Spain" by Marta Navazo Ruiz and colleagues from the University of Burgos. https://doi.org/10.3390/quat7040049

We also go on to discuss the Stegosaur fossil Apex sold, purchased and loaned to the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) and the sale of a Ceratosaurus fossil by Utah's Museum of Ancient life.