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American paleontology hobbyist here, seeking wisdom from those of you outside the USA regarding amateur paleontology culture elsewhere. Call me crazy. I'm seeking your stories to use in a planned talk in a session advocating for amateur/hobbyist contributions to paleontology, at the North American Paleontological Convention in June. Which stories? Well, the ones that offer better ways that amateur/hobbyist paleontology can interface with professionals, academics, corporations, and governments. I want to hear about the ways in which differences in cultural or historical or legal framework in different countries have led to different/better relationships with amateur/hobbyist paleontology than we have in the USA. For example: How do municipalities, corporations, and universities regard their role in actively or passively facilitating access/opportunity/education for amateurs/hobbyists? How do states and universities regard hobbyist societies as knowledgeable partners in which to invest trust when it comes to approving outcrop access, amateur grants, etc.? What is the funding mechanism for efforts to keep fossil exposures fresh at designated fossil parks? Is there an amateur paleontology stewardship certification offered by the state, by the municipality, by the national society, by the local museum or university, or by individual quarries that lends meaningful weight when it comes to approving outcrop access, amateur grants, etc.? If you have some interesting answers—especially anecdotal answers—to these and related questions, I'd love to catch up with you for 20 minutes to discuss. Your responses are what will open up possibilities for fossil collectors here in the USA and elsewhere. Let's talk. To start the conversation, send me a DM. Or if you prefer to just leave your thoughts below, that's fine too. Thanks.

To start, I’m aware that the St Clair PA area owned by Reading Anthracite that contains the white ferns is closed for collecting in any general sense. However I have seen posts in the past and discussion that they allow organizations, often with a university, to collect. I just wanted to make a post to see if anyone is aware of this being the case, and the best way to go about reaching out if so. I am a member of the AIPG chapter at WSU in Detroit, and the officers of our group reached out to me to help organize a fossil collecting trip, and I thought it was worth consideration due to our position. And as a side piece if anyone has any other recommendations for spots or quarries to go to or reach out to as a medium-large group that’s doable in a day to 2-day trip out of Detroit I’d happily take those as well. I have a handful of other spots in mind but I’m sure there’s plenty more.

It's great to see that this board is so active, and that there's such a good, positive atmosphere here for amateur-professional interaction. So, in that spirit, it seems that there's scope for a new permanent topic. There is a wealth of extraordinary fossils in the collections here, and we've seen the rewards that a good collaboration can bring in the gallery... and there are probably also a lot of palaeontologists, around the world, who would love something specific to work on that is a bit inaccessible for them. There may also be people working on monographs of particulalr groups from particular areas. Why not give them a place to advertise their needs? There's also the issue of collectors/amateurs who have found something they feel ought to be described, but can't find anyone who wants to do it. A parallel thread showcasing available new fossils might also be a really good avenue to go down. At the moment, the site probably isn't on the radar of most palaeontological researchers (including some of the amateur ones), but there are places like the Palaeonet listserver where this board could be brought to their attention. It could really start building some hefty bridges, if the idea takes off. I've certainly got a 'want' or two that I could throw in to begin with! Is this a route the forum would like to go down, at least to try it? I'm happy to announce it on Palaeonet, if so!

Has anyone on here had a good experience with fossil preparation services? I’m not asking for specific companies (as I know this might be a breach of TFF community rules), just wanting to know if anyone has had good results with fossil prep companies in general. I’ve got a couple of nice-ish Devonian trilobite partials in need of prep and am too impatient to prep them myself. Also full air scribe setups are extremely expensive, this isn’t even taking into account that there are no spare rooms in my house for a fossil prep workshop. Meaning, I would either have to build onto the house or build a shed for my prep equipment. I apologize for rambling on a bit here, just wanted to make it clear that I really don’t have any other options.

I’m currently in search of a fossil preparator who can repair/restore a broken pterosaur tooth. The other day I accidentally knocked a box of small fossils off of a shelf and several items broke. I’ve been able to glue most of the stuff back together with PaleoBond, with the exception of a ~2.5 cm pterosaur tooth (Kem Kem Beds, Morocco) that broke into two pieces, and the two piece don’t fit back together perfectly, Repair of the tooth would require filling relatively substantial cracks as well as painting. This is beyond my skill level, especially with such a small fossil, so I’m willing to pay someone with experience to restore to tooth, ideally so that the fact it was broken is barely noticeable. I’ve seen pretty convincing tooth composites from the Kem Kem Beds before, so I’m hopefully these results are attainable if done by a preparator with experience. Does anybody have any recommendations to who I could approach to perform such a repair? Or, better yet, does anyone reading this have any experience with this type of fossil repair/restoration? I apologize greatly if this type of post is not usual for this category, I know that it’s essentially an ISO ad. But I’ve tried Google looking for people who offer fossil repair services and had very little luck, and I know The Fossil Forum is full of experienced and knowledgeable people and thought this was my best bet for locating help.