FossilFest 2025!

Start: Saturday, March 15, 2025 9:00PM
End: Sunday, March 16, 2025 10:00PM

FossilFest is Florida’s largest prehistoric show where the public can view amazing fossils found right here in Florida, as well as artifacts left behind by Florida’s first people. FossilFest features educational activities for both children and adults designed to teach the public about Florida’s exciting prehistoric past. A time when saber-toothed cats, giant wolves, sharks as big as school buses, and prehistoric Indians ruled Florida’s peninsula. Also on display will be gems, minerals, fossil shells, and antique bottles. Vendors will be on hand to sell and trade fossils found both here in Florida, and from all over the world. “Our goal is to teach Floridians about the prehistoric creatures and people that were here long before us,” says club president Mike Searle. “You don’t have to travel to far-away exotic places to find these fossils. Mammoths, wolves, camels, and rhinos lived right here where we live today. Their fossilized remains are everywhere in Florida”, says Searle. On both Saturday and Sunday there will be free workshops to teach folks how they can legally hunt fossils in Florida and how to identify and preserve what they find. A highlight of FossilFest is the children's Fossil Mine at Paleo Park. For a small fee kids can dig through a sand pit to recover actual prehistoric fossils donated by members of the Tampa Bay Fossil Club. Then, at the "Learning Table," they sit down with a club member who will identify and explain their new treasures. The children keep all the fossils they find!