Fossil

An unidentified fossil in Animal Crossing: New Horizons

Fossils are items in the Animal Crossing series that can be donated to the museum. Fossils 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; it can be taken to the museum or mailed for identification, sold, placed in a house, used in DIY recipes in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, or discarded.

In Doubutsu no Mori, Doubutsu no Mori+, Animal Crossing, and Doubutsu no Mori e+, the fossils must each be individually mailed to the Farway Museum, which is located outside the player's town, for identification. Fossils cannot be found in the acres that contain the player houses, the wishing well, the train station, the lake, or the dump.

In Wild World onwards, 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 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.

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, with the exception of New Horizons. In New Leaf, if the player has 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.

On average, players can find three random fossils in their town per day, provided there is enough space for them to spawn. In Animal Crossing: New Leaf, there are 67 total fossils, and four fossils tend to spawn each day. Other items such as pitfall seeds may also be buried underground. In Animal Crossing: New Horizons, there are a total of 74 Fossils to collect, with 3 to 5 fossils spawning each day on the player's island. Fossils may also be found on island tours.

Lists of fossils

• First-generation games
• Animal Crossing: Wild World
• Animal Crossing: City Folk
• Animal Crossing: New Leaf
• Animal Crossing: New Horizons

Appearances

Fossils in the Animal Crossing series
Name	Image	Type	Game
			AC	ACWW	ACCF	ACNL	ACNH
Amber		Standalone	AC	ACWW	ACCF	ACNL	ACNH
Ammonite		Standalone	AC	ACWW	ACCF	ACNL	ACNH
Apatosaurus		Multi-part	AC	ACWW	ACCF	ACNL
Dinosaur egg		Standalone	AC	ACWW	ACCF	ACNL
Dinosaur track		Standalone	AC	ACWW	ACCF	ACNL	ACNH
Mammoth		Multi-part	AC	ACWW	ACCF	ACNL	ACNH
Plesiosaurus		Multi-part	AC	ACWW	ACCF	ACNL	ACNH
Pteranodon		Multi-part	AC	ACWW	ACCF	ACNL	ACNH
Stegosaurus		Multi-part	AC	ACWW	ACCF	ACNL	ACNH
T. Rex		Multi-part	AC	ACWW	ACCF	ACNL	ACNH
Triceratops		Multi-part	AC	ACWW	ACCF	ACNL	ACNH
Trilobite		Standalone	AC	ACWW	ACCF	ACNL	ACNH
Ankylosaurus		Multi-part		ACWW	ACCF	ACNL	ACNH
Archaeopteryx		Standalone		ACWW	ACCF	ACNL	ACNH
Coprolite		Standalone		ACWW	ACCF	ACNL	ACNH
Dimetrodon		Multi-part		ACWW	ACCF	ACNL	ACNH
Fern fossil		Standalone		ACWW	ACCF	ACNL
Iguanodon		Multi-part		ACWW	ACCF	ACNL	ACNH
Pachycephalosaurus		Multi-part		ACWW	ACCF	ACNL	ACNH
Parasaurolophus		Multi-part		ACWW	ACCF	ACNL	ACNH
Peking Man		Standalone		ACWW	ACCF	ACNL
Sabertooth Tiger		Multi-part		ACWW	ACCF	ACNL	ACNH
Seismosaur		Multi-part		ACWW	ACCF
Shark-tooth pattern		Standalone		ACWW	ACCF	ACNL	ACNH
Ichthyosaur		Multi-part			ACCF	ACNL
Styracosaurus		Multi-part			ACCF	ACNL
Velociraptor		Multi-part			ACCF	ACNL
Archelon		Multi-part				ACNL	ACNH
Diplodocus		Multi-part				ACNL	ACNH
Megacerops		Multi-part				ACNL	ACNH
Spinosaurus		Multi-part				ACNL	ACNH
Acanthostega		Standalone					ACNH
Anomalocaris		Standalone					ACNH
Australopith		Standalone					ACNH
Brachiosaurus		Multi-part					ACNH
Deinonychus		Multi-part					ACNH
Dunkleosteus		Standalone					ACNH
Eusthenopteron		Standalone					ACNH
Juramaia		Standalone					ACNH
Megaloceros		Multi-part					ACNH
Myllokunmingia		Standalone					ACNH
Ophthalmosaurus		Multi-part					ACNH
Quetzalcoatlus		Multi-part					ACNH

Gallery

Sprites and models

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  Sprite in Animal Crossing

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  Icon in Animal Crossing

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  Sprite on Animal Island in Animal Crossing

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  Identified sprite in Animal Crossing

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  Identified icon in Animal Crossing

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  Sprite in Wild World

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  Identified sprite in Wild World

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  Icon in Wild World

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  Identified icon in Wild World

• CFFossil.png

  Model texture in City Folk

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  Icon in City Folk

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  Identified icon in City Folk

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  Icon in New Leaf

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  Model in New Leaf

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  Identified icon in New Leaf

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  Identified fossil model in New Leaf

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  Storage icon in New Horizons

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  Inventory icon in New Horizons

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  Identified inventory icon in New Horizons

Screenshots

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  A player digging up a fossil in Animal Crossing

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  A player digging up a fossil in Animal Crossing: Wild World

• CFFossilExhibit.jpg

  Animal Crossing: City Folk

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  Animal Crossing: City Folk

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  Animal Crossing: City Folk

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  Animal Crossing: City Folk

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  Animal Crossing: City Folk

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  Animal Crossing: City Folk

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  Animal Crossing: New Leaf

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  A player digging up a fossil in Animal Crossing: New Horizons