Can you really find a dinosaur fossil?

Could you really find a dinosaur fossil? Absolutely—just maybe not the way Hollywood portrays it. Dinosaur shows on Netflix and the Jurassic Park movies make it look like fossils are everywhere, but the fossilization process itself makes finding dinosaurs and other fossils very rare.

So, can I find dinosaur fossils myself?

The honest answer is: yes but you have to know where to look!

Dinosaur bones have been discovered on every continent, and almost each of the states in the USA has produced at least one dinosaur fossil, with especially rich layers in places like Montana, the Dakotas, Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, Arizona, and Texas. Even in those hot spots, complete skeletons are rare; most species are known from just a handful of specimens. That’s why joining a supervised dinosaur dig dramatically boosts your chances of seeing real dinosaur fossils in place—and even helping uncover them.

How can you find a dinosaur dig to join?

Finding dinosaur digs to join used to be almost as hard as finding fossils themselves, but now, there’s Ancient Odysseys! The company curates and develops dinosaur and fossil digs that anyone can join—without any experience needed.

• WYOMING—You can join a dig in the Lance Formation in Wyoming where the first Triceratops was found and where Tyrannosaurus rex, Ankylosaurus and Edmontosaurus once roamed.

• MONTANA—Or, dig in the area where the first dinosaur eggs were discovered in Montana. These are one-day digs that adults and kids of any age can join.

• ARIZONA—The earliest of dinosaurs are found regularly in Arizona’s Petrified Forest National Park, where you can dig for a day with the park paleontologist.

• FRANCE—Dinosaurs even roamed around France and you can join a dig in Provence to unearth Titanosaurs, and Rhabdodon and ancient crocodiles.

• AUSTRALIA—Work to clean and prepare dinosaur bones for research and display in Australia’s largest fossil lab in Winton

• CAMP IN MONTANA—There’s even a weeklong camp for high school students in Montana.  

Dinosaurs aren’t the only fossils you can find

There is a wide array of dig experiences on Ancient Odysseys around the world that let you be onsite to dig firsthand into the discoveries. At each site, you'll learn how paleontologists tell bone from rock, learn how to use the tools of the trade, contribute to science and take part in real discoveries.

You may not walk away cradling a T. rex skull like in the movies, but you can spend a day or a week helping uncover genuine fossils that have been buried for tens of millions of years—and that’s an adventure no Netflix or movie screen can match.