Animal Crossing: New Horizons: Fossil guide

One of the most useful types of items in Animal Crossing: New Horizons are fossils that you can find in your village. Not only are these fossils important for filling your museum with stunning exhibits, but they can also be sold for serious Bells at the town shop, too! Here's our full overview of all there is to know about fossils, including where and how to find them, what to do with them, a complete list of every fossil in the game, and how many Bells you can get for them.

Where to find fossils

While you may think trying to find ancient bones buried underneath the ground will be difficult, it's actually pretty easy and straightforward in Animal Crossing: New Horizons. As you walk around your village, you may come across star-shaped depressions in the ground. If you take your shovel tool and dig in this spot, you'll come across a fossil. In some rare cases, it may be another object. During the Bunny Day holiday, for example, you might find Earth eggs; however, the vast majority of the time, these spots contain fossils in them.

You can find up to four fossils per day in your village, so we recommend thoroughly searching every bit of land on the island. You can also come across these valuable pieces of history when you take Mystery Island Tours. Fossils can be buried anywhere, including tricky spots like on the edges of small cliffs, so keep a sharp eye out.

Getting your fossils assessed

Now that you have some fossils, you'll need to have Blathers, the owl that operates the town museum, assess them. If you don't have them assessed, they won't sell for much at Nook's Cranny, and Blathers won't be able to accept them as donations either. You need to have them assessed. Who would want to buy some unknown lump of questionable dirt anyway?

Related: Animal Crossing: New Horizons — How to unlock multiplayer, the museum, shops, and island trips

Thankfully, getting the fossils assessed is a quick and straightforward process. Here's what you need to do:

• Enter the museum.
• Speak to Blathers.
• Select Assess fossils.
• Select all of the fossils in your inventory.
• Press the + Button to confirm.

Once you do this, Blathers will identify what each fossil is. You can easily tell the difference between assessed fossils and unassessed ones in your inventory by the skull-and-bones icon. Hovering over an assessed fossil in your inventory will show you what specific type it is.

What to do with fossils

Now that you've gotten your fossils identified, there are three main things that you can do with them. Firstly, you can donate them to your museum by speaking to Blathers and telling him that you want to donate, just as you would with bugs or fish. If Blathers notices a fossil the museum doesn't have yet, he'll ask if you want to donate it after his assessment. We recommend doing this since the exhibit looks really cool once you fill it with fossils, and you'll be rewarded with Nook Miles for your donation efforts. Once you donate a fossil type once, though, Blathers won't take any duplicates in the future.

Your second option is to sell them for Bells, which can be surprisingly lucrative. Each fossil in the game sells for at least 1,000 Bells, and most of them will sell for more than that. Duplicate fossils can get you anywhere between 10,000-15,000 Bells daily. Not bad for digging some holes!

Lastly, you have the option of using assessed fossils as furniture, which is a cool way to add some unique flair to a room in your house. Since you can place furniture outside, too, you could also get creative and design a custom outdoor fossil exhibit if you want to. Just be aware that many fossils are massive and take up a lot of space.

A complete list of fossils and their selling prices

There are a whopping 73 unique fossils to find in Animal Crossing: New Horizons and each one comes with its own selling price. Some pieces are standalone, while others are part of a set. Here's a full list of every fossil in the game.

Have you found all your fossils?

Fossil hunting is simple, easy, and if you fill up your museum fast, you can make a lot of Bells to pay off those pesky home loans. A little digging is worth it sometimes, so happy fossil hunting!

Animal Crossing: New Horizons is available for $60 on Nintendo Switch.