Best Fossil Rich
Dinosaur Provincial Park is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Alberta, Canada, designated in 1979 and recognized as one of the richest Cretaceous dinosaur fossil sites on Earth with over 40 species identified.
Olduvai Gorge is an archaeological and paleoanthropological site in northern Tanzania, within the Ngorongoro Conservation Area and the broader East African Rift system. Its exposed sedimentary layers preserve stone tools, animal remains, and hominin fossils spanning a long period of early human evol...
Ischigualasto Provincial Park is a protected badlands landscape in San Juan Province, Argentina, noted for exposed rock sequences from the Triassic Period. Together with neighboring Talampaya National Park, it was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2000. Its sedimentary formations preser...
Wadi el-Hitan, or Whale Valley, is a fossil site in Egypt's Western Desert within Faiyum Governorate and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Its Eocene deposits contain numerous archaeocete whale skeletons, including specimens with reduced hind limbs, alongside fossils of other marine organisms. The site...
The Turkana Basin is a geological and drainage basin centered on Lake Turkana and extending across northern Kenya and southern Ethiopia within the East African Rift system. Its exposed sedimentary deposits preserve fossils and archaeological evidence spanning major stages of primate and human evolut...
Dinosaur National Monument is a protected area spanning northeastern Utah and northwestern Colorado, established in 1915 around a major dinosaur fossil quarry. At the Quarry Exhibit Hall, visitors can see more than 1,500 dinosaur bones preserved in an exposed rock face, including remains of large Ju...
Mungo National Park is a protected area in southwestern New South Wales, Australia, within the UNESCO-listed Willandra Lakes Region. Its dry lake bed, dunes, and eroded lunette known as the Walls of China preserve evidence of long-term Aboriginal occupation and major changes in climate and landscape...
Bisti/De-Na-Zin Wilderness is a 45,000-acre federally designated wilderness in northwestern New Mexico managed by the BLM, known for its alien-looking hoodoos, petrified wood, and Cretaceous dinosaur fossils.
The Flaming Cliffs, also called Bayanzag, are a fossil-rich area of red and orange sandstone in Mongolia's Gobi Desert. Expeditions led by Roy Chapman Andrews for the American Museum of Natural History worked there during the 1920s and uncovered important Cretaceous fossils, including dinosaur nests...
John Day Fossil Beds National Monument is a protected area in eastern Oregon preserving an extensive record of Cenozoic plants, animals, and environmental change spanning roughly 40 million years. The monument comprises the Clarno, Painted Hills, and Sheep Rock units, each with distinct geology and...
The Nemegt Basin is a fossil-rich region of the Gobi Desert in Mongolia known for Late Cretaceous sedimentary formations and major dinosaur discoveries. Fossils recovered from the basin include specimens assigned to Tarbosaurus, Therizinosaurus, and Deinocheirus, along with remains of other dinosaur...
The Hell Creek badlands expose sedimentary rocks of the Hell Creek Formation across parts of Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wyoming. These rocks were deposited near the end of the Cretaceous Period and preserve abundant fossils, including Tyrannosaurus, Triceratops, plants, turtles, and ot...
The Tatacoa Desert is a semi-arid badland region in Colombia's Huila Department, near the municipality of Villavieja. Despite its common name, it is not a conventional sand desert; erosion has cut its sedimentary formations into gullies, ridges, and labyrinths, including areas of reddish and gray te...
Hagerman Fossil Beds National Monument protects fossil-bearing deposits along the Snake River in south-central Idaho. Established in 1988, it preserves an extensive record of Pliocene plants and animals, including numerous fossils of Equus simplicidens, commonly called the Hagerman horse. The monume...
Eroded badland terrain in the San Juan Basin of New Mexico, underlain by Cretaceous and Paleogene rock yielding significant dinosaur and mammal fossils.
Judith River Badlands is an eroded badlands region in central Montana along the Judith River, noted for its Late Cretaceous fossil beds that yielded early dinosaur discoveries in the 19th century.
