Fossil localities don't respect state lines. Neither does the work of documenting them. These are the sites we know, the sites we're watching, and the sites that show what's possible when conservation is done right.
| Site | Status | Period | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 270/44 Site | Lost | Mississippian | Exposed during highway construction. No longer accessible. Legacy documented. |
| I-170 Innerbelt | Exhausted | Pennsylvanian | Exposed during highway project. Legacy saved through fossil collection and website stewardship. |
| Fern Glen | At risk | Mississippian | Inactive rock quarry on private property. Threatened by development. Legacy documented. |
| Site | Status | Period | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Floraville / Ridenhower | Active, fragile | Mississippian | Located on private property. Permission required to enter. Creek bank site. Blastoids. History of overcollection. Handle with care. |
If you know of a fossil locality at risk, anywhere, get in touch → Documentation starts with a conversation.
Sites where conservation, public access, education, and research have come together. The aspiration made concrete.
California. Active urban excavation site. Pleistocene fauna recovered from naturally occurring asphalt seeps. Ongoing research, public access, fossil laboratory visible to visitors.
Utah and Colorado. Quarry Exhibit Hall preserves over 1,500 dinosaur bones visible in situ. Visitors can touch fossil remains 149 million years old.
Colorado. Eocene shales preserving over 1,500 insect species, petrified redwood stumps, fish, and plants. Saved from development in 1969 through citizen and scientific advocacy.
Missouri. Significant Pleistocene site with evidence of human-mastodon interaction. One of the most important late Pleistocene localities in the American Midwest.
Oregon. 40 million years of continuous mammal fossil record spanning the Eocene through Miocene. Among the most complete Cenozoic records on earth.
South Dakota. 75-million-year-old marine fossils alongside 30-million-year-old Oligocene mammals. Fossil Exhibit Trail passes in-situ bones visible from the path.
Different countries approach fossil access and conservation differently. These sites offer frameworks worth understanding.
England. UNESCO World Heritage Site. Public collecting permitted on actively eroding cliffs. 185 million years of geological history exposed along 96 miles of coastline.
Alberta, Canada. UNESCO World Heritage Site. One of the richest dinosaur fossil sites on earth. Managed public access alongside active research and strict preservation zones.
Germany. UNESCO World Heritage Site. Former oil shale mine, now the world's premier Eocene fossil locality. Fully articulated skeletons, preserved stomach contents, feathers, and hair from 47 million years ago.
Nova Scotia, Canada. UNESCO World Heritage Site. The "Coal Age Galapagos." 310-million-year-old Carboniferous forest preserved upright in sea cliffs. New fossils exposed with every tide.
Egypt. UNESCO World Heritage Site. Valley of the Whales. Eocene fossils of early whales in various stages of losing their hind limbs. Among the most significant evolutionary records in the fossil record.
Greece. UNESCO Global Geopark. Miocene forest entombed by volcanic activity 20 million years ago. Upright petrified trees up to 7 meters tall remain in place where they fell.
British Columbia, Canada. UNESCO World Heritage Site. Cambrian fossil deposit preserving soft-bodied organisms in exceptional detail, 505 million years old. Among the most important windows into early animal life.
South Australia. The site that named the Ediacaran period. Fossils of the earliest known complex multicellular organisms, 560-580 million years old. Among the oldest animal fossils on earth.