"I love animal fossils," the reporter replied. "I just want to buy them for my collection. Are you sure you don't have other fossils?"

The reporter pretended to be a rich stranger, showing great interest in the goods exhibited in the shop. Several minutes' talk later, the shop owner suddenly said, "You can leave your phone number and I'll call you if I have what you want.

"They rarely sell these things at shops. They have their own circle and use their own means of contact."

The farmers of fossil-rich areas know all the sales contacts, said Zhou Zhonghe, acting director of the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing.

As soon as locals got wind of the potential enormous riches, thousands began rifling through hills and mountains, Li Jinling said.

"In China, the fossil sites are mostly in poor areas and the fossil is a kind of way for local farmers to get rich," she said. "Whoever digs will get rich."

Random, amateur and excess digging is disastrous for this fragile, precious natural resource, according to Zhou. "Attached to these fossils are important environmental clues and information," he said, "but they disappear through unscientific and unplanned digging.

"The common people only care about well-known valuable fossils like species of dinosaurs."

They miss, ignore or toss away the lesser-known or unpopular fossils, he warned. "But for scientific research purposes, these other associated trace fossils are of equal value."

Without proper scientific protection, unearthed fossils erode rapidly, he said, and important geological information also disappears with the wind.

More and more people are taking an interest in paleontology. While Zhou is delighted paleontology attracts growing popular interest, his concern is that this new fascination feeds the large market demand for fossils.

With excess demand the fake fossil market has arrived: a massive headache for dinosaur fans. A fake Archaeoraptor fossil smuggled out of China 10 years ago fooled the international market and the prestigious National Geographic magazine.

The Dinosaur Museum in Blanding, Utah, US, paid $80,000 to study scientifically the "valuable fossil" that National Geographic later claimed was "a missing link between terrestrial dinosaurs and birds that could actually fly". Scientists soon questioned the authenticity of the fossil and an internal investigation by the magazine finally confirmed it was a composite.

This expensive and embarrassing fiasco leads international scholars to worry about authenticity whenever Chinese scientists declare a new discovery. National Geographic is by no means the only expert group fooled by a fake fossil. Private collectors, fossil lovers, researchers and even local museums are all victims.

"Over 80 percent of fossil specimens have problems," Xu Xing, a paleontologist of the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, the Chinese Academy of Sciences reportedly said.