Browse Every Fossil Hunting Site

Every site page answers the same five questions, because those are the ones that decide whether a trip is worth making. What will you actually find there. Exactly where it is and how you get to it. Whether you can collect or only look. Whether there is a fee or a permit. What the hazards are.

Each page also names the geological formation and gives its age in millions of years. That matters more than it sounds. The formation name is the key that lets you check our work against a geological survey, and it is how you find other exposures of the same rock elsewhere.

Access is recorded as one of five values: free, fee, permit, viewing-only, or guided-only. Read it before you travel. A viewing-only site can still be worth a day out, but you will not be taking anything home from it, and several of the best-known fossil localities in the world fall into that category.

Claims on these pages are sourced to land managers, geological surveys, museums, and published research rather than to other hobby sites. Where a detail could not be confirmed, the page says so rather than guessing.

Coverage is uneven, and the counts on each index page show where the gaps are. Some states carry a single site. Six carry none at all. That reflects the work we have done rather than the geology, and the catalogue grows as we verify new localities against primary sources.

If you know a site we have missed, you can submit it. Include the formation name and the access rules if you have them, because those are the two fields that take longest to verify.

Use the map and look for the site nearest you. Most people find their first fossil within an hour of home, on a beach or a stream bank where the water has already broken the rock open and sorted the heavy pieces together.

If you have never collected before, read the beginner guide first. It covers what to bring, how to read an exposure, and the access rules that apply on public land. Families should look at the guide to fossil hunting with children.