Fossil Collection

FGS staff have collected and preserved thousands of fossil specimens over the past century. Fossils exposed within rocks at or near land surface range from 45 million-year-old "sand dollars" to bones and teeth from the "Ice Age" saber-tooth tiger. Our in-house collections include a variety of fossilized shells, shark teeth, and agatized coral (the official state stone of Florida), as well as larger vertebrate fossils, including a Miocene dugong (sea cow) skeleton. 

Located in Gainesville, the UF/FGS Collection of fossil vertebrates consists of about 22,000 mammals, reptiles, birds, amphibians and fish - almost all of which were collected in Florida.  In addition to the fossil vertebrate collection, the Florida Museum of Natural History's Invertebrate Paleontology Collection has fully curated 149,467 specimens of invertebrate fossils of molluscs, arthropods, corals, bryozoans, echinoderms and foraminifera.  Approximately 50,000 more specimens have yet to be fully curated. Information about these specimens can be found at http://specifyportal.flmnh.ufl.edu/ip/.  And at the Museum of Florida History in Tallahassee, visitors can view "Herman," a mastodon skeleton recovered by FGS staff in 1930 from the depths of Wakulla Springs.   

Florida is a veritable fossil-hunter's paradise! If you are interested in collecting fossils in Florida, see our "Florida Fossil Collecting" page for more information concerning fossil types and permitting.