Getting started

From find to shelf

Updated October 2026

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One: identify it, at least to group Two: establish the land it came from Three: decide whether it can be sold Four: write the label truthfully and completely Then choose the jar Keep the provenance with the specimen, physically Buying is the same exercise in reverse References

Four steps, and the first two decide whether the last two happen.

One: identify it, at least to group

Invertebrate, plant or vertebrate. That single distinction decides whether casual collecting could ever have applied, and five of the fifteen leaves in this group are vertebrates. A generic "fossil specimen" has to be resolved before anything else.

Two: establish the land it came from

Private, state, tribal or federal, and if federal, which agency. That is a question about a place and a date, and the answer either comes with the specimen or does not exist.

Three: decide whether it can be sold

Selling or offering to sell is prohibited where the person knew or should have known the resource came from federal land. "Should have known" means an absence of provenance is not a defense, it is the problem.

Four: write the label truthfully and completely

Species or group, formation if known, locality at whatever precision is appropriate, date, collector, and how it was acquired. A false record, account, label or identification is its own offense.

Then choose the jar

Clear for display, amber or opaque for anything light sensitive, a liner that seals if humidity is a concern, and a neck wide enough to get the specimen in and out without touching the walls.

Keep the provenance with the specimen, physically

In the jar, on a card, in pencil or permanent ink. A collection whose provenance lives only in a spreadsheet loses it the first time a jar is moved, and then every specimen in it is unsalable.

Buying is the same exercise in reverse

Acquiring, receiving and purchasing are all named, so a buyer with no provenance is in the same position as a seller. A specimen with no paper is a specimen nobody should want.

References

16 U.S.C. 470aaa-5, Prohibited acts; criminal penalties. Paragraph (a)(3) bars selling, purchasing or offering to, where the person knew or should have known the resource came from Federal land; (b) creates a false labeling offense; (c) sets penalties of up to 5 years, or 2 years where value and restoration cost do not exceed $500; (e) exempts resources in lawful possession before 30 March 2009. law.cornell.edu

16 U.S.C. 470aaa, the Paleontological Resources Preservation Act definitions. Paragraph (1) defines casual collecting as a reasonable amount of common invertebrate and plant paleontological resources for non-commercial personal use by surface collection or non-powered hand tools with negligible disturbance; (2) defines Federal land; (4) defines paleontological resource and excludes archaeological resources and cultural items. law.cornell.edu

16 U.S.C. 3372, the Lacey Act’s prohibited acts, which make it unlawful to import, export, transport, sell, receive, acquire or purchase fish, wildlife or plants taken, possessed, transported or sold in violation of any law, treaty or regulation of the United States, any Indian tribal law, or in interstate or foreign commerce any State or foreign law. law.cornell.edu

Written from federal statute, not from a prep lab. PRPA covers federal land; private land, state land and tribal land each answer to different rules, and foreign fossils bring export law with them. Nothing here is advice on a particular specimen, and the permit questions belong to the managing agency.