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FOSSILS FOR SALE
Why Buy Fossils From Fossil Era?
FossilEra is the largest retailer of real fossils in the world. Founded by a life-long fossil enthusiast, field collector, and preparator, we have shipped over 120 thousand orders in just our first eight years in business. Our customers range from passionate collectors to educational institutions, museums, and those just shopping for a unique gift. Our actual customers have given us a combined 4.9 out of 5 star rating on their orders, including over 13,000 five-star reviews.
We take pride in providing high quality, accurately described fossils and guarantee the authenticity of everything that we sell. Many fossil dealers will provide you with a paper authenticity certificate, but an authenticity certificate is only worth the paper it is printed on unless there is someone trustworthy backing it. We provide a lifetime authenticity guarantee where we will provide a full refund at any time if the fossil we sold was not accurately described.
We source our fossils from a world-wide network of trusted field collectors and preparation labs. This allows us to establish provenance and provide the best material at great prices. Unlike the majority of fossil dealers, we disclose restoration on specimens we sell up front. While many fossils require some degree of repair and restoration, disclosure is key so that you know what you are buying. Restoration can have a significant impact on the value of some types of fossils and we often see dealers selling fossils with very significant and undisclosed restoration, priced as if it had none. Part of the problem is that many dealers simply don’t have the knowledge of the fossil preparation process to be able to recognize this restoration themselves.
In addition to providing great fossils, we take pride in our customer service and shipping. We insure all orders will arrive in good condition and offer a 30-day, no-questions-asked return policy on orders. If you have any questions you can reach one of our knowledgeable customer support staff via email at support@fossilera.com or on the phone at (866) 550-2013 (weekdays 7:00am to 4:00pm PST).
What Is A Fossil?
Fossils are the remains and traces of ancient organisms. A fossil (Latin for "obtained by digging") is the preserved remains or traces of organisms (plants, animals, etc) that lived in the distant past. The convention is that a fossil must predate recorded human history. While there is no defined date, typically something must be older than 10,000 years to be considered a fossil.
The oldest fossils in the fossil record date from 3.5 billion years ago, but it wasn't until around 600 million years ago that complex, multi-cellular life began and was first preserved in the fossil record.
There are two main types of fossils: body and trace. Body fossils include the remains of organisms that were once living (bones, shells, teeth, eggs, etc), while trace fossils are the signs that organisms were once present (footprints, tracks, burrow, coprolites). Trace fossils represent a data source that reflects animal behaviors, and they do not require the preservation of hard body parts. Many traces date from significantly earlier than the body fossils of the animals suspected to have made them.
Fossilization of an organism requires a unique set of circumstances so that it doesn’t just decay without a trace. These conditions include:
1. Rapid and permanent burial/entombment
2. Lack of oxygen that limits decay and scavenging
3. Continued sediment accumulation
4. The absence of heat or compression, which might destroy the fossil
Fossils are most often preserved within sediments deposited by water, such as wetlands, river basins, or the ocean.
Types Of Fossilization
Permineralization or Petrification - After an organism is buried, minerals carried by water such as silica, calcite, or pyrite replace the organic material in the fossil. Some common examples are most dinosaur bones, petrified wood, and many trilobite fossils. Permineralization can preserve even the most minute details, including cell structure!
Petrified wood is a classic example of permineralization, where the original organic wood material has been replaced by silica and other minerals.
Molds and Casts - A mold fossil is when the organism decays, leaving an impression in the rock called a mold. A cast is when that mold has been filled in with rock or minerals.
A bivalve preserved as an external mold fossil.
Carbonization - Carbonization is a process in which the more volatile substances of the organism (hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, etc) are removed, leaving behind the carbon. These fossils typically appear as a thin, dark film on the rock. This type of preservation is common among plant fossils.
Fossil leaves from the Tranquille Shale of British Columbia preserved through carbonization.
Unaltered Preservation - The original material of the organism has not been changed to another substance. Very rare, and typically found in very recent fossils. Some examples include freezing (woolly mammoths in the permafrost), mummification, or fossilization in amber.
A weevil trapped in Baltic amber is an example of unaltered preservation.
Replacement and Recrystallization - Replacement occurs when the shell, bone or other tissue is replaced with another mineral. A shell is said to be recrystallized when the original skeletal compounds are still present but in a different crystal form, as from aragonite to calcite.
A fossil clam from the famous Rucks' Pit locality in Florida full of calcite crystals.
Authigenic Mineralisation - A very special form of cast and mold formation where a nodule is formed around the fossil by minerals such as siderite. In cases of rapid fosssilization, very fine details can be preserved. One example of this are the ironstone nodules in the Mazon Creek fossil beds, which often contain amazingly detailed fossil plants and insects.
A juvenile fossil shark (Bandringa rayi) preserved in a siderite nodule from Mazon Creek, IL.
Dating Fossils
One common question that comes up is, how is the age of a fossil determined? There are two main types of dating:
Relative Dating
Most fossils are dated using relative dating techniques. Relative dating compares a fossil to something for which the age is already known. For example, if you have a fossil trilobite found in Utah's Wheeler Formation, which has been dated to approximately 507 million years old, you know that trilobite is approximately 507 million years old.
Scientists use certain types of fossils referred to as index fossils to assist in relative dating via correlation. Index fossils are fossils that only occur during a specific time frame. Typically, common fossils with widespread geographic distribution such as brachiopods, trilobites, or ammonites make the best index fossils. If the fossil you are trying to date occurs in the same layers as these index fossils, they can be used to narrow down the date of that fossil or date the rock formation.
An important principle of relative dating is that rock layers are deposited sequentially. If a layer of rock containing the fossil is higher up (closer to the surface) in the sequence that another layer, you know that layer much be younger in age. By combining these principles, relative dating techniques can usually be used to determine the approximate age of a fossil.
Absolute Dating
Absolute dating is used to determine a precise age of a fossil through radiometric methods. This uses radioactive minerals in rocks and fossils almost like a geological clock.
The atoms in some chemical elements have different forms, called isotopes. These isotopes break down at a very consistent rate over time through a process known as radioactive decay. By measuring the ratio of the amount of the original isotope to the amount of the isotopes that it breaks down into, scientists can determine the age of something.
While people are most familiar with carbon dating, carbon dating is rarely applicable to fossils. Carbon-14, the radioactive isotope of carbon used in carbon dating, breaks down too fast. It can only be used to date fossils younger than 75,000 years. On the other hand, Potassium-40 breaks down much slower and is common in rocks and minerals. It can often be used to date rocks and fossils up to several billion years old.
What Determines The Color Of A Fossil?
The basic process of fossilization deals with mineral replacement as remains, such as bone, sit buried in the ground. As overburden is deposited over remains, minerals naturally dissolved in groundwater, then seep into the remains, precipitate, and fill in the microscopic gaps. The organic, or original, material in the bone breaks down over time, while minerals fill in those empty areas where the organic material once was. In the end, the bone retains very little, if any, organic material, and instead is full of hardened minerals. As a result, the weight of the bone dramatically increases and the color changes to that of the replaced minerals.
Fossil Megalodon teeth showing a wide range of colors. They were all originally ivory white like modern shark teeth before being fossilized.
Different Minerals Produce Different Colors
Since minerals come in a plethora of colors, fossils also come in a wide variety of colors. Some examples include phosphate, a common mineral that replaces shark teeth. Phosphate is a jet-black mineral. If phosphate replaces the original material, the fossil will be black. Areas with lots of iron in the ground will produce red and orange-colored fossils. Also, areas with gray clays and limestone will produce a gray-green or gray-yellow color, like the shark teeth in North Carolina. Read More...
Most Popular Types Of Fossils To Buy
Authentic Megalodon Teeth - The megalodon (Otodus megalodon) was a massive prehistoric shark that grew to lengths of up to 60 feet that went extinct 2.6 million years ago. It had giant teeth that could reach 7 inches in length (though only a handful have ever been found that large). For comparison, the largest great white shark teeth do not reach 3 inches in length. Fossil megalodon teeth can be found worldwide and are both impressive and terrifying!
Shop our wide selection of authentic megalodon fossils for sale. Our specimens range from great $25 gifts to collector-quality teeth priced at $3,000+.
Ammonites - Ammonites are extinct cephalopods with a spiral shell and tentacles. Their shells are common fossils the world over and resemble those of the modern day nautilus. We have a huge selection of ammonite fossils for sale and they are one of our most popular items due to their natural beauty. Our cut and polished, agate replaced examples from Madagascar are some of our most popular items! They are often cut in half to reveal the beautifully preserved inner chambers. Learn more about ammonites...
Fossil Fish - Fish have been around in the fossil record for over 400 million years and are one of the most diverse animal groups on our planet. Fossil fish are some of the most aesthetic and collectable specimens out there. FossilEra has a selection of beautiful fish fossils for sale from the famous Green River Formation of Wyoming, as well as several other locations around the world. Not only do these fish make for beautiful displays, but they are tremendously interesting from a scientific and historical perspective. Dig Your Own Fossil Fish At Our Quarry In Wyoming
Trilobite Fossils - Trilobites are an extinct marine animal that dominated Earth's oceans for 270 million years, long before the first dinosaurs. There were over 25,000 known species, some with very ornate shells covered in spines and some pretty wild ornamentation. Their huge variety and alien-looking appearances make them very appealing to collectors. We have a huge variety of trilobite fossils for sale, ranging from inexpensive common species to amazing museum-quality specimens and everything in between. Learn more about trilobites
Dinosaur Fossils - Another one of our best sellers are authentic dinosaur fossils, particularly dinosaur teeth. We work with several of the top dinosaur quarries in the United States in both the Hell Creek and Morrison Formations of Montana, Utah, Colorado, and Wyoming to bring you exceptional hard-to-find material. In addition, we guarantee the authenticity and accuracy of our listings.
Some of our most popular teeth include theropod (meat-eating) dinosaur teeth from the Kem Kem Beds of Morocco. We almost always have a good selection of beautiful and affordable fossil Spinosaurus, Raptor and Carcharodontosaurus teeth in stock as well as teeth of mosasaurs (giant marine reptiles) and plesiosaurs (long-necked marine reptiles).
Amber With Insects - Amber is the fossilized sap of trees. Amber is known for trapping insects and plant material intact, making it an interesting window into the past. Amber can be found in many places around the world including the Baltic Sea region of northern Europe, the Balkans of southeastern Europe, Northern Myanmar (Burma), Mexico, and the Dominican Republic.
