Canada: Alberta

Alberta's Historical Resources Act makes every fossil found in the province the property of the Crown, whoever owns the land. A person may pick up isolated fossils lying loose on the surface — on provincial Crown land, or on private land with the owner's consent — and keep them as custodian, but may not excavate: digging of any kind needs a permit that is issued only to professional palaeontologists. Provincial and national parks (Dinosaur Provincial Park, Midland, Banff, Jasper) are closed to collecting altogether.

Ownership of the surface find stays with the Province. For a limited class — leaf impressions, petrified wood and invertebrate fossils — the collector can apply for a Disposition Certificate through the Royal Tyrrell Museum's Resource Management Program, which transfers ownership and is required before any sale. Vertebrate material is not eligible; a surface-collected dinosaur bone can be kept only as custodian and cannot be sold. Removing any Alberta fossil from the province needs the Government's permission, and for export from Canada the federal Cultural Property Export and Import Act adds an export permit for significant specimens.

Ammolite (the gem form of Placenticeras shell from the Bearpaw Formation) is mined commercially under provincial mineral agreements by a handful of licence holders; ammolite jewellery and complete ammonites sold in the trade carry the miner's disposition paperwork, and a buyer should ask to see it.

Penalties under the Act run to $50,000 and a year's imprisonment. The practical rule for a dealer or collector outside Alberta: an Alberta ammonite, Tyrrell-area dinosaur bone or Bearpaw material without a disposition certificate and export permit should not be bought, and the certificate number belongs on the record.