Fossil

Fossils are the preserved remains of a prehistoric plant or animal, encased in rock over thousands of years. Fossils in the can be found on occasion around the player's town, buried under the soil with a tell-tale crack in the ground above it. Unidentified fossils can be dug up with a shovel; after which it can be taken to the museum or mailed away for identification, sold, placed in a house, or discarded.

In and, the fossils must each be individually mailed to the Faraway Museum that is outside the player's town for identification. In and, it can be identified by Blathers, the curator, free of charge. Upon being identified, it can be donated or returned to the Player's inventory. In Wild World, there are 52 fossils to be collected, all forming a part of a dinosaur, early mammal, aquatic reptile, or an entire, yet smaller, fossil. After being completed, Blathers gives a small but interesting talk on the finished fossil, while the fossil itself has its scientific name and the period in history that it lived in written next to the exhibit.

On average, the player can find three fossils in their town per day. However, if the player's town is overrun with weeds or covered with patterns, this leaves less space for a fossil to be underground (a fossil cannot be under rocks, where a flower or tree is, etc.) and they may not find some or any that day. Other items may also be buried underground.

Fossils as furniture items
Fossils may also be displayed in the player's house and provide large boosts for HRA scoring and the player's bell funds. Stand alone fossils (trilobite, egg, amber, etc.) provide small boosts, skulls provide a big boost and a completed skeleton gives the highest boost. As furniture, all fossils have either Old School (Wild World), Retro (City Folk), or Quirky (New Leaf) genres. If players have all the parts of a fossil, they can optionally take it to Cyrus and have him shrink the fossil to a mini figure that takes only one square and can be displayed on a table.