Links to Dinosaur Sites :
Palaeontological Society of the Peace (PSP)
Alberta Palaeontological Society (APS)
Philip J. Currie Dinosaur Museum
Royal Tyrrell Museum
Dinosaur Provincial Park
Royal Alberta Museum
Royal Ontario Museum
Devil’s Coulee
Tumbler Ridge Museum Foundation
T-Rex Discovery Centre
Jurassic Forest
Fossil Basics and Dinosaur Fossil Dating
Northern Fossil Trail

LEGISLATION PERTAINING TO FOSSIL COLLECTING IN ALBERTA
The collecting of fossils is regulated under the Alberta Historical Resources Act.  (http://www.canlii.org/ab/laws/sta/h-9/20040623/whole.html ) Copies of the Act are available in the GPRC library, or are available to anyone from the Queen’s Printer Bookstore for a few dollars, or viewed online at www.qp.gov.ab.ca (do a search by title: Historical Resources Act). Queen’s Printer Bookstore is located in Calgary at 602, 620 7 Avenue SW (403) 297-6251 or Edmonton: main floor, Park Plaza, 10611 98 Avenue (780) 427-4952. The Historical Resources Act includes several sub-regulations. The most important sub-regulations to PSP members and ones that concern fossils are: Alberta Regulation 254/2002—Archaeological and Palaeontological Research Permit Regulation and Alberta Regulation 101/1998—Disposition Regulation.

Both regulations are available from the Queen’s Printer, or viewed online: www.qp.gov.ab.ca/catalogue/ (search by chapter/ regulation number).

The following notes are mainly from the brochure Finding Fossils, a publication of the Royal Tyrrell Museum and the Alberta Ministry of Culture and Multiculturalism. A summary is viewable online at www.tyrrellmuseum.com/ (search using the keywords “finding fossils”).

DEFINITIONS
Surface collecting—gathering isolated fossils which are clearly on the surface of the ground.
Excavating—digging, prying or somehow extracting a fossil buried or embedded in the ground or rock face.

KEEPING FOSSILS
Surface collecting is permitted on Crown land, and on private land with the landowner’s permission. You may keep surface finds as a custodian, but ownership resides with the province of Alberta, making it illegal to sell or take such fossils out of the province without an approved Disposition Certificate. Excavating fossils requires a permit. Permits are granted only to academics with post-graduate degrees. Application forms are processed through Resource Planning at the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology. Procedures outlined in the Historical Resources Act must also be followed before any part of the collection can be retained. All applications are reviewed by the Alberta Palaeontological Advisory Committee to the Minister of Culture and Multiculturalism. It is illegal to remove fossils from provincial and federal parks or designated protected areas in Alberta. Precise boundaries of Alberta parks and protected areas may be found on the Land Reference Manual web page: ww.cd.gov.ab.ca/preserving/parks/lrm/index.asp 

OWNING FOSSILS
Fossils found, collected or acquired after July 5, 1978
All fossils collected in Alberta since July 5, 1978, and all fossils still in or on the ground, are owned by the province.

WHAT TO DO WHEN YOU FIND A SCIENTIFICALLY VALUABLE SPECIMEN                                                            
Identifying a valuable specimen is not always easy. Even the professionals can’t always recognize what is important. Remember that the science of palaeontology is continuously evolving. Some specimens have not been recognized for their importance until years later, as other discoveries were made.

Some basic rules to identify what is scientifically important and should be left alone:

• Skull or pieces of skull anatomy.
• Bone bed (a concentrated accumulation of bones, teeth, etc.)
• Articulated whole specimen or articulated parts of a specimen such as a limb.
• Fossils in formations that normally don’t contain fossils or in which fossils are extremely rare.
• Particular fossils that, by virtue of their geographical location, are rare (for example, vertebrate fossils from the foothills of Alberta).
• Fossils that have never been found previously in a particular formation.

If none of the above criteria apply, and you can’t positively identify the specimen, you may first solicit the opinion of others with you. When in doubt, don’t guess— leave it alone and contact one of the following institutions; Royal Tyrrell Museum, University of Alberta, Mount Royal Museum. Grande Prairie Regional College, or the Geologiacal Survey of Canada (GSC) in Calgary. If you do find something that you recognize as a valuable specimen, the same guidelines apply: leave it alone and report it. Don’t uncover parts of it because that may destroy part of the fossil, or its geological context. Don’t cover it up with dirt because that may make it impossible to find later. Mark the area, take careful note of the location and call the professionals. If the fossil is in an area that may be frequented by the public, don’t mark it in such a way that it could become a target for unscrupulous collectors or vandals. If it is threatened by erosion, it will come down to a judgment call on whether or not you should collect it. You may be able to take simple preventative measures to minimize erosion by making a small trench to divert water around the specimen if it is in danger of washing away.