Are there any auctions where I can sell an unrecorded fossil for big bucks?

Question

I've recently found a brand new species of tree that puts an earlier time on which they formed and an earlier time on which plants formed too. I happened to find a fossilized tree for sure in tuscarora sandstone. This was the first layer to be laid down during the silurian period that makes the first trees appearance 50-70 million years earlier than once thought. I know that this tree was not fossilized from a different period because it would have been made of a different rock type and it's not it's made of tuscarora sand stone.

Answer 1

If you have enough proof of the fossil's being legitimate, it provenance, and testimony  from reputable paleontologists you can sell it.  If you are right this is actually big news and the fossil is worth a lot.

Getting proof would require taking specialists to the spot where you dug it up, petrology studies to prove the fossil came from rock you said it did and so on.  You may be asked why it wasn't recorded.  You are likely to run into problems about ownership and rights, on private as well as government land.

Your best bet is to get it described formally (collected by so and so and written up by a recognized expert or two).  Display it on loan in a museum and then put it up for auction.

Answer 2

can't you just get it recorded?

you might be famous, kinda.