Bringing Back Fossils From Overseas - How To Do It Legally

[Sylvestersen]

In Denmark we have the concept "Danekræ" for rextremely rare fossils.

According to the Danish Museum Act Danekræ belong to the State of Denmark and should be submitted immediately after discovery to the Natural History Museum of Denmark, which includes the Geological Museum, Zoological Museum, Botanical Garden & Museum of the University of Copenhagen.

Danekræ are exceptionally well preserved or rare fossils, rare mineral specimens and all meteorites found in Denmark. If you find any natural object, which could be covered by the description above, you should contact one of the Natural History Museums in Denmark. Alternatively, you can contact the nearest local museum, which will pass on the object to a natural history museum, where a preliminary assessment of the object will be made. If the object is considered to be of national importance, it will be passed on to an expert group for further evaluation. If the Natural History Museum of Denmark decides that the object should be declared danekræ, a compensatory award will be mailed directly to the collector; otherwise the object will be returned.

[hitekmastr]

These are TERRIFIC and highly informative responses! Thanks to everyone now (and in the future) for helping to clarify what can and cannot be exported from other countries. We read so much about finds from other countries that it is important to know what is legal and permissible and what is not, especially when we are planning vacations that might include fossil collecting! I'm sure there will be more posts on this critical topic.

[Wrangellian]

- Stalactites and stalagmites (I don't know the English words to indicate the concretions limestones which fall vaults of caves, or those who settle on their ground).

Same in English!

[Coco]

Hi,

Thanks wrangellian !

Coco

[donckey]

In the Netherlands there is a law against "schatgraven" = treasure hunting. You are not allowed to do focussed search for archelogical valueable artifacts.

Still lots of people search with detectors! Surface collecting of artefact like arrowheads and other stone artefacts is allowed. You are not allowed to digg for it.

Fossil seaking has no limitation. In some limestone Quarries in the south of the Netherlands (amateur) (re)search excursions are organized by Nation and regional amateur fossil/minetal organisations like "Stichting Geologische Activiteiten" and "Nederlandse Geologisch Vereniging". In Winterswijk a little town in the east where u can find Trias-dinosaurus and foothprint also excursion are possible.

You can keep your finds but the serious amature collectors and the professional institutes have very good relations. So rare finds are mostly handed over to the universities for detailed research and public exposure.

Sometimes it is better not to know all the laws and rules about this topic. If I would have returned home listing to every sign of "verboden toegang", "Betreten Verboten, Eltern haften fur die Kinder",(= entrance prohibited). I would not have many fossils in my collection SMILE

I know there are some scientific professionals all over the world and maybe also on forums like this, who dislike amateurs cause they ruin sites and finds. I know that there are some amatuers who really do a lot of damage but the majorty respect (reasonable) rules and location. People digging for fossils for commercial purposes sometimes do a lot of good work and sometimes do not!

However I would like to tell the professionals that amateurs were and are very important for the development and input to areas like paleontology and archelogy. Without amateurs a lot of location, finds and species would not be discovered!

Edited December 26, 2012 by donckey