Since the early days of Animal Crossing, collecting fossil, bug, and fish donations for the local museum has been a crucial part of the games. In New Horizons, building a museum is among one of the very first tasks. After some fishing and bug catching, Blathers provides players with recipes for a ladder and a shovel and sends them on a hunt for buried bones.
For many players, the fossil exhibit is the first to be completed in full, but getting those last few finds can be difficult. Thankfully, there are quite a few resources available to help you out.
10 Track Your Donations
New Horizons features 73 fossils in the museum collection. Keeping track of your donations is important for narrowing down the list of fossils you still need to find. The Nook Shopping catalog is very handy here since it even tracks the fossils you collect despite the fact that they are not for sale.
Now, the catalog only tells you what you’ve collected, not what you’ve donated. We recommend supplementing the catalog with a pocket guide mobile app like ACNH Travel Guide, which allows you to check off fossils as you hand them over to Blathers.
9 Dig Daily
At the start of every new day, which officially occurs at 5 a.m., a new handful of fossils will appear around your island. There are exactly four fossils every day, though they won’t necessarily be fossils you haven’t seen before. Incorporating fossil hunting into your daily tasks can help you finish the exhibit much quicker. Plus, Blathers will be thrilled to assess fossils every day!
If you do happen to miss a day of play, no worries. Four more fossils will still appear in addition to the ones from the previous day.
8 Reach Out To Friends
You’re likely to come across many duplicate fossils in your hunt, especially the more common pieces. Remember this: your Animal Crossing friends are probably experiencing the same thing. Thankfully, unlike bugs and fish, fossils are a tradable item in the game. Ask around and see if any friends have a fossil you’re looking for.
On a bigger scale, there are also Facebook and Discord groups dedicated to the Animal Crossing community. If you’re comfortable reaching out there, someone is bound to be able to help.
7 Check Mystery Islands
Mystery islands are a perfect destination for gathering resources like wood, iron, stones, and more. Rare islands filled with gold and bells are certainly in higher demand, but the standard islands are just as helpful. Though not always guaranteed, some standard mystery islands do have one fossil buried somewhere.
Be sure to bring a shovel along and keep your eyes peeled for that little star on the ground. If you’re lucky, you might find a brand new fossil!
6 Search Obstructed Areas
Having trouble finding all four daily fossils? We don’t blame you. Those islands are pretty big, and there are a ton of little nooks and crannies—pun intended—for fossils to hide in. Be sure to search every last bit of your island, especially areas with a ton of furniture that may hide the star. A fossil can populate on even the smallest patch of grass, and they can even appear on dirt and sand paths.
The camera angle outside can be tricky to play with since there’s no aerial view. Standing behind an object or tree and opening your inventory should allow you to see anything hiding behind the item.
5 Shop On Nookazon
Some sellers list fossils, so, if you’re desperately searching for that last one, simply enter the fossil name and see who’s got it. You may even be able to snag one for free from a generous donor.
4 Build An Outdoor Exhibit
Once you finally do complete your museum’s fossil exhibit, there remains the matter of what you can do with all those duplicates. Fossils will still spawn on your island daily. One idea that many players have adopted is creating an outdoor fossil exhibit featuring the most popular dinosaurs, such as the Tyrannosaurus Rex.
Just as they are set up in the museum, you can place fossils outside the building and line the pieces up—there are typically two or three if it is a larger dinosaur. Add some lights and rope, and it’s the perfect outdoor exhibit!
3 Share Your Duplicates
You can also collect the duplicates and pay it forward by offering them up to friends or other fellow players. You never know, you might have exactly what someone is looking for! The duplicates are also handy to have around for trading events where you might find something else you’ve been wanting.
2 Sell, Sell, Sell
Timmy and Tommy will buy anything, even dusty old fossils that Blathers turned down. Some of these relics do earn a hefty chunk of change, especially if you sell them in bulk. Since they spawn every day, farming assessed fossils is one of the quickest ways to make some major bells.
In particular, the highest-priced fossils tend to be Diplodocus bones at 4,000, 4,500, and 5,000 bells apiece, depending on which one. With all six pieces in total, you can make 27,000 from that dinosaur alone. Other dinosaur fossils typically sell for around 5,000 bells each, so any combination will help you rake in the cash.
1 Don’t Get Discouraged
The more fossils you donate, the less likely you are to find new ones in your daily searches. There will likely be quite a few days of searching until you gather up every last fossil on that list. Don’t get discouraged; you will find that last piece one way or another!
NEXT: Animal Crossing: The 10 Most Expensive Amiibo Cards
