"Illegal" fossils and private collections

[Emthegem]

Hello All,

So recently I've been doing a little bit of reading on random fossil news to pass the time, and I keep reading a lot of comments about "illegal fossils" and whatnot. One specific specimen that comes up a loooot in my readings is the T-Rex fossils. Some mention the legality of the issue, some mention the fact that they might be going to private collectors rather than museums, and many mention both. I understand why the scientific community might want to perform research on the specimen, but seeing as there are more than a single T-Rex fossil that belong to museums, shouldn't this be fine to sell a couple to collectors?

 

Also when a fossil is considered "illegal" what exactly does it mean? Illegal as in illegal to find, illegal to keep if found, illegal to ship overseas, and/or illegal to sell?

 

Thanks,

 

-Em

 

[Ludwigia]

2 hours ago, Emthegem said:

 

Also when a fossil is considered "illegal" what exactly does it mean? Illegal as in illegal to find, illegal to keep if found, illegal to ship overseas, and/or illegal to sell

 

It means all of these things and more. We have had and still have a number of ongoing discussions on the subject here in the forum. Just place the word "illegal" in the search function under "General Discussion" and you'll find lots to peruse.

[Troodon]

Trex fossils if collected on private land with the landowners permission are perfectly legal here in the United States and can be sold anywhere to anyone.  If found on other government type land like BLM its illegal, unless you have a permit to collect, you can be arrested and specimen confiscated.  Not the case in Canada which have much stricter laws in Alberta or Saskatchewan where you can find Trex material.  In Alberta a disposition is required to be able to sell or remove a fossil outside the Province.

[Raptor9468]

I think this forum post covered some points regarding private collectors

Some countries do not allow the export of fossils for commerical purposes,its better to do research on different countries laws yourself but

China Argentina Brazil and Mongolia bans exports of fossils generally,yet fossils exported prior to the ban can be traded.(You will have to have proof though depending on your country)

In other countries if the fossils are found on government property and its a vertebrate Im almost certain its illegal to collect for commerical purposes in most cases.

 

[martwad]

Sue is probably the specimen that I would think would be the most notable controversial "illegal" finding, and the moral of that story is to be 100% sure of where you are collecting and what the legality is of where you are collecting.  The Black Hills Institute isn't some sketchy organization.  They fully believed what they were doing was legit.  They got caught up in a gray area over land ownership of Tribal trust land and Dept. of Interior, and who actually "owns" said ground.

[erose]

On 5/27/2020 at 5:24 PM, martwad said:

Sue is probably the specimen that I would think would be the most notable controversial "illegal" finding, and the moral of that story is to be 100% sure of where you are collecting and what the legality is of where you are collecting.  The Black Hills Institute isn't some sketchy organization.  They fully believed what they were doing was legit.  They got caught up in a gray area over land ownership of Tribal trust land and Dept. of Interior, and who actually "owns" said ground.

Thanks for pointing out that Black Hills did not collect the specimen illegally. As suggested by the link above this issue has been discussed ad nauseam. The majority of arguments made are based on anecdotal stories and don't take into account the honest, legal and respectful behavior of the majority of amateurs, professionals and academics.