GoFossilHunting

Founder and author, GoFossilHunting

Edward Chen

Edward Chen has been fossil hunting across Southern California since 2016 and built GoFossilHunting to give collectors the easy-to-use, comprehensive map of public fossil sites he could not find anywhere online. His favorite trips are trilobite splitting at U-Dig in Utah, Gaviota Beach, and the Los Padres Wilderness.

A trilobite I split out of the Wheeler Shale at U-Dig Fossils near Delta, Utah.

Photo: Edward Chen / GoFossilHunting

How I got into fossil hunting

I’ve been interested in paleontology for almost as long as I can remember. My parents told me that I loved playing with dinosaurs as a toddler when I was 2. I grew up watching nature and paleontology documentaries like BBC’s Walking with Dinosaurs. When I was 9, I “wrote a book” myself, a non-fiction book covering prehistory from the Pre-Cambrian Era to the present Quaternary Epoch. In high school, I had the idea for California Fossil Sites, an online database of fossil collecting sites in California. Recently, I decided to expand it to include global sites and created GoFossilHunting.

Where I hunt

I hunt mostly across Southern California, but some of my standout trips have been farther afield. I split trilobites out of the Cambrian Wheeler Shale at U-Dig Fossils in Utah, walked the shore for shark teeth and marine fossils at Gaviota Beach, and explored the backcountry exposures of the Los Padres Wilderness. U-Dig is the easiest place I know to go home with a complete trilobite, usually Elrathia kingii, the species the quarry is known for.

Finds from the field

These are trilobites I collected and photographed myself at U-Dig Fossils near Delta, Utah. Original photos, not stock images.

A trilobite I split out of the Wheeler Shale at U-Dig Fossils near Delta, Utah, held in my hand.
Photo: Edward Chen / GoFossilHunting
A trilobite in grey Wheeler Shale matrix, collected at U-Dig Fossils near Delta, Utah.
Photo: Edward Chen / GoFossilHunting
A trilobite specimen freshly split from Cambrian shale at U-Dig Fossils, Delta, Utah.
Photo: Edward Chen / GoFossilHunting
A trilobite fossil from the Wheeler Shale at U-Dig Fossils near Delta, Utah.
Photo: Edward Chen / GoFossilHunting

Why I built this site

I was looking for fossil sites to check out in California back in 2016 and realized there wasn’t an easy-to-use, comprehensive dataset of fossil sites online. What existed was clunky and looked like it had been made decades ago, and the information was fragmented and scattered across many different sites. I wanted to build a centralized place where people could responsibly find sites to view and collect fossils around the world, and learn more about the geologic history of the world around us.

Get in touch

Found an error in a guide, or know a site we’re missing? Email me at gofossilhunting@gmail.com or use the site submission form. You can also read more about the project and how the data is verified.