Animal Crossing: New Horizons Guide – How To Find Every Fossil

Fossils are one of the most valuable items in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, and the game includes 73 unique variations for you to track down, six more than in New Leaf.

While you’re encouraged to donate fossils to Blathers to help fill up the museum, it’s also possible to sell fossils for Bells or use them as decorative pieces throughout your island. 

In this guide, we’ll show you how to find every fossil in New Horizons, explain how fossil assessments work, and provide a full list of each one along with their associated price.

If you would like to learn more about island living, check out our ACNH tips and tricks guide to help get you started.

How To Find Fossils

Finding fossils in Animal Crossing is fairly straightforward, requiring only two things: a shovel and a spot to dig. As you make your way around your island, you may notice spots covered by a star-shaped marker, indicating there’s something buried beneath.

More often than not, these holes will contain fossils, and by digging with your shovel, you’ll be able to add them to your pockets.

There’s a chance of spawning up to five fossils on your island every morning at 5 AM when the world resets.

Since they can appear just about anywhere, you’ll want to perform a thorough inspection of the entire island, including cliff-areas and patches of grass that may be hidden by a shop or villager’s house. Additionally, you can find fossils during Mystery Tours and by trading with friends.

How To Have Fossils Assessed

Once you’ve collected some fossils, the next step is to have them assessed, whether or not you plan on donating them to the museum. The reason for this is that assessed fossils sell for a lot more at Nook’s Cranny.

To have fossils assessed, speak to Blathers inside the museum and let him know you have fossils. After you’ve made your selection, Blathers will identify what each fossil is and tell you whether or not they’re currently being displayed in the museum.

Each time you donate an assessed fossil, Blathers will offer to tell you more about the fossil’s history.

How To Check Fossils You Already Have

If you’re unsure whether or not you’ve found the same fossil twice, you can pull up the Nook Shopping catalog to see what fossils you’ve already collected.

You can open up the catalog either at the Nook Stop kiosk in Resident Services or via the app on your NookPhone. To unlock the Nook Shopping app, you’ll have to have purchased 100 items directly from the catalog.

Once you have it installed, select the section containing wallpaper, flooring, and more. The “and more” in question is actually fossils, amongst other miscellaneous items. Scroll over to the fossils tab, and you’ll see a list of every fossil you’ve ever cataloged.

How To Use Fossils

In addition to filling up your museum, fossils can be used in a couple of different ways. Assessed fossils can be sold at Nook’s Cranny for 1,000 Bells and up depending on the rarity.

Since four to five fossils will spawn on your island each day, you’re looking at a minimum of 5,000 Bells but more likely somewhere in the 15,000-20,000 Bells range.

This can make it tough to know when you should give fossils to the museum or when to keep them for your own personal gain.

In our experience, we found a good practice is to donate any fossils your museum doesn’t have and sell the remaining duplicates. The more you play, the less frequently you’ll find new fossils, allowing you to make more money.

Lastly, fossils can also be used as decorations anywhere on your island. Placing down a fossil works just like any other piece of furniture and can be done from your Pockets menu. Bigger fossils will multiple parts will require you to have each piece in order to display them fully.

List Of Fossils And Prices