It"s not a problem unique to India though, points out Wilson. "In America too, if you find a fossil on your land, you can do with it what you want. There"s no law that protects dinosaur fossils – they"re treated like minerals. And there are plenty of challenges to that approach." Unlike minerals, however, the value of a dinosaur fossil isn’t immediately apparent. In India, vast amounts of paleontological data is lost to mining and other development activities, says Wilson.