What you may sell

False labeling is its own offense

Updated October 2026

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What it says Four things it reaches It is separate from the sale offense Vagueness is not the answer Identification counts Locality data has its own protection Write what you actually know References

The card in the jar is a record, and the statute has a subsection about it.

What it says

A person may not make or submit any false record, account, or label for, or any false identification of, any paleontological resource excavated or removed from federal land. Four nouns, and a label is one of them.

Four things it reaches

A record, an account, a label, and an identification. So a specimen card, an invoice, a listing description and a species attribution are each capable of being a false one.

It is separate from the sale offense

Subsection (a)(3) covers selling; subsection (b) covers the labeling. A misstated origin is actionable in its own right, which is unusual and worth knowing before anyone decides a vague locality is safer than an honest one.

Vagueness is not the answer

Writing "Western USA" over a precise locality you know might feel cautious. If the real origin is federal land, an obscured label is closer to a false record than to an omission, and the sale offense is unaffected either way.

Identification counts

A false identification of a resource is named, so attributing a specimen to a species or a formation you have no basis for is in scope. In a category where the name drives the price that is a real temptation.

Locality data has its own protection

Under a permit, specific locality data may not be released by the permittee or repository without the Secretary’s written permission. So withholding precise locality is sometimes required rather than evasive, and the two situations should not be confused.

Write what you actually know

Including "locality unknown, acquired from X on Y date" where that is the truth. An honest gap is a usable record. An invented precision is the thing the subsection is about.

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-3, Collection of paleontological resources. A resource may not be collected from Federal land without a permit; casual collecting is allowed without one on Bureau of Land Management, Bureau of Reclamation and Forest Service land; and a permitted collection remains the property of the United States, goes to an approved repository, and its locality data is not released without the Secretary’s written permission. 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.