Paleontologists can be nasty, jealous folks. I have a friend who found a T-Rex on private land in the Hell Creek Formation. A very nice specimen, since sold for big bucks.
They are serious, but amateur Paleontologists, not affiliated with a University. They are hated by many in Academia because they sell their finds, even though they use professional experts, document their digs, and make their data available to anyone who asks. They have also found a very nice Oviraptor that helped demonstrated that they guarded their own eggs and were not robbers of other nests. Lots of petty argument.
The same thing occurs among professionals, they don’t like people who make big finds like this one. Most land in the West is federally owned, with many restrictions on fossil hunting and digging, most of them imposed by some self appointed major domo scientist. That makes private land a premium, and both amateurs and professional work years to build a relationship with land owners. Most of the land owners want to control who they allow on their land and they are not willing to turn it into a petting zoo for scientists. These guys are publishing their finds, so their jealous colleagues can take a hike.
Othniel Charles Marsh & Edward Drinker Cope fossil hunting crews were said to have gotten into gun fights out west over fossil finds!
Wake me when that happens!
We have extensive cave paintings on our ranch, located somewhere in the USA. Private land.
Go in for a solid mile. Some are exquisite.
Obvious man-made structures, once you get past the bend, even a ventilation tunnel. Lots of trash pits near the cave entrance, filled with bones of various kinds, literally tons of flint work, and what we think are probably burial remains. We just left all alone, excepting to board over the cave entrances.
My grandfather looked at me, dead serious, when I was 12, and told me to tell NO ONE. Not even a friend.
He said it, to let it be known was the quickest way for us to get our ranch confiscated by the federal government.
We finally let our kids see them when they were adults.