Private land and permission

In the United States fossils on private land are the landowner's property, like the minerals and the soil. The landowner can collect them, sell them, or let you collect them on whatever terms you agree. This is why nearly every commercially sold US dinosaur comes from private ranches in Montana, Wyoming and the Dakotas.

Permission should be written, even between friends: who may collect, where, when, what may be kept, and whether finds may be sold. A dated letter or a one-page lease signed by the owner is enough; a text message is better than nothing. Where mineral rights are severed from surface rights, fossils generally follow the surface estate, but a serious commercial dig should confirm this with a local attorney.

Keep the agreement with the specimen. Stratum's Document Vault stores the scan against the provenance record and cites it on the certificate; a specimen with a landowner agreement on file is worth more and sells faster than one without.

Some states regulate fossils on state-owned land separately — state parks, school trust land, river beds and beaches — and a few require permits or restrict vertebrates. Check the state geological survey's page before collecting on anything that is not clearly private.

Trespass is the collector's most common legal problem. If you cannot name the owner, you do not have permission.