About GoFossilHunting

Our mission

Fossil sites are surprisingly hard to find. Online resources are fragmented, frequently out of date, and often only useful if you already know the exact name of the site you are looking for. Many local guides have not been updated in over a decade, and there is no easy way to share your own finds with the broader community without building a website or wading into a forum.

GoFossilHunting brings the world’s known fossil sites onto a single map, with practical guides for each: directions, access rules, fossil types, and geological context. It is built so a casual hunter can find a site near them in under a minute, and so an experienced one can deepen their understanding of any formation in a few clicks.

What we offer

• A map of public-access fossil sites across the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Australia, Morocco, and Denmark, filtered by country, fossil type, geological period, and access policy.
• Site guides with directions, parking notes, collecting rules, fossil identification, and geological background for every entry.
• A submission flow for adding new sites or correcting existing ones.
• Background articles on the formations, periods, and species behind each site.

Our values

Responsible hunting

We follow the Leave No Trace principle. Increased visitor traffic accelerates erosion and degradation at any site; for every specimen that goes home in a backpack, several should be left in place for future visitors to discover. Every guide highlights the ethical collecting practices specific to that site, including tools that are permitted, quantities allowed, and any in-situ features (trackways, marker fossils) that should never be disturbed.

Respect for land rights

Always obtain proper permissions and permits before fossil hunting. Respect private property, protected areas, and posted signage. Collecting on private land without permission, or in a protected area where collecting is prohibited, is illegal almost everywhere we cover. When the access policy at a site we list changes, we update the guide as soon as we are notified.

Community knowledge

The catalog gets better every time a reader sends us a correction, a new site, or a recent photograph. Your contributions help preserve fossil hunting knowledge and make it accessible to enthusiasts at every level.

The data

The catalog currently covers roughly 240 sites across six countries. Each entry is verified for legitimate public access before publication: pay-to-dig fossil parks, free-collection beaches, permitted sites, and in-situ viewing locations such as fossil trackways and exposed reef beds. Sites without genuine public access are excluded entirely.

Site information is researched against official park websites, government geological surveys, university publications, and established paleontological organizations. Hero images are sourced from Wikimedia Commons under their original Creative Commons licenses, with attribution preserved on every page.

Who’s behind this

GoFossilHunting grew out of a childhood obsession with paleontology and a long-running frustration with how outdated and fragmented the available online resources were. It began as a personal project to fix that, and continues to grow through the contributions of fossil hunters around the world.

Why it matters

Fossils connect us to a deep natural history that long predates the written record. Hunting them responsibly, taking only what we need, leaving sites better than we found them, and sharing knowledge with the next generation of hunters, is what keeps that history available to the people who will visit these sites long after we have.

Contribute

If you know a site we are missing, or have spotted an error in one of our guides, we would love to hear from you. Use the site submission form to add a new site, or email gofossilhunting@gmail.com with corrections.

Contact

Email us at gofossilhunting@gmail.com. We aim to respond within 48 hours.