New Horizons has been out in the wild world for a good few weeks now, and many players will have sniffed out a burgeoning collection of fossils. But unlike Animal Crossing’s fish stocks - and ecosystem of bugs - there isn’t a handy Critterpedia to keep track of everything.
It can be tricky and time consuming to remember how many parts of each large fossil, and how many pieces overall, you still need to uncover.
How to find fossils in Animal Crossing: New Horizons What to do with fossils in Animal Crossing: New Horizons Animal Crossing: New Horizons Fossils prices - Full List
How to find fossils in Animal Crossing: New Horizons
In Animal Crossing: New Horizons, you find fossils by using a shovel on cracks in the ground. Between 2 and 6 of these cracks appear daily, and seem to become more frequent as you progress through the game. Check all over your island every day for new spots that appear. While cracks most often contain fossils, there are a couple of exceptions. Sometimes, the cracks are used to hide event items like the Earth Egg in Bunny Day. Also, if you see a crack in the ground next to a bamboo plant, then it will contain a bamboo shoot. When you dig up a fossil, even if you’ve seen that one before, it will be unidentified - which brings us onto the next point.
What to do with fossils in Animal Crossing: New Horizons
There are three main things you can do with fossils in Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Your first port of call with any unidentified fossils should be Tom Nook right at the beginning of the game, and then Blathers once the town museum is open. Blathers will assess any and all fossils you hand over to him, so don’t be shy about filling your pockets. Once the fossils have been assessed, you have a choice. You can donate one of each type of fossil to the museum to bolster their collection. This is highly recommended, since the museum is a beautiful space and filling it is one of the cornerstones of the game. However, Blathers can’t accept multiples of the same kind of fossil. If you have spare fossils left over, you can either display them on your island for a decent boost to your island rating (we have a page on how to get 5 stars, here). Or you can sell them to Timmy and Tommy at Nook’s Cranny for a decent wodge of cash. While the displayed fossils do look impressive, they can be a great source of reliable income every day as well. Because there’s only so many characters that fit into an item name, many of the fossils in New Horzions have their full names cut off. Here’s all of the dinosaurs and ancient animals that feature:
Ankylosaurus Archelon Brachiosaurus Deinonychus Dunkleosteus Diplodocus Dimetrodon Iguanodon Mammoth Megacerops Megaloceros Ophthalmosaurus Pachycephalosaurus Parasaurolophus Plesiosaurus Pteranodon Quetzalcoatlus Sabertooth Tiger Spinosaurus Stegosaurus Triceratops Tyrannosaurus Rex
Animal Crossing: New Horizons Fossil prices - Full List
Below is a list of every fossil in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, including its selling price at Nook’s Cranny and whether it’s part of a larger set or not. The price data comes from the Animal Crossing wiki community under CC-BY-SA license, which means you can reproduce and remix the data as you like as well.
For more information on Animal Crossing: New Horizons, check out our pages on Redd’s fake art gallery of paintings and statues, as well as our full guide.
