Fossil

Not to be confused with Minecraft x Fossil.

This article is about Overworld fossils. For the similar features generated in the Soul Sand Valley, see Nether Fossil. For other uses, see Bone (disambiguation).

A fossil is a rarely-occurring skeletal feature composed of bone blocks, coal ore above Y=0, or diamond ore below Y=-8.

Generation

Fossils randomly generate only in desert, swamp and mangrove swamp biomes. Each chunk has two attempts within Y-coordinates 0 to 320 or -63 to -8 underground to generate a fossil, each with a chance of ¹⁄₆₄. They have an equal chance to generate as any of the four variants of skull or four variants of spine.

Fossils first generate the pure-bone layer with a structure integrity of 0.9, meaning 10% of the bone blocks are removed and do not override original terrain blocks, leaving 90% bone blocks. Next, the ore layer generates with a structure integrity of 0.1, replacing 10% of the existing fossil with coal ore for fossils that generate above Y level 0. Diamond ore or deepslate diamond ore generate below Y level -8. The locations of these ore blocks do not always correspond with the voids generated in the initial bone fossil, so the resulting combination of both generations usually result in an incomplete fossil structure composed of bone blocks and ores.

Because fossils are features instead of structures, they generate even when the "Generate Structures" option is turned off.^[1]

Structure

Naturally-generated fossils are composed of a mix of bone blocks and coal or diamond ores, as detailed above. They are made with NBT structure files and have files for each type of fossil located in the folder minecraft.jar/data/minecraft/structures/fossil.

There are 4 type of skulls and 4 type of spines.

Structure file	Description	Consists of	Images
fossil/skull_1 fossil/skull_1_coal	The largest skull.	86 in total Bone Block, Coal Ore, or Deepslate Diamond Ore
fossil/skull_2 fossil/skull_2_coal	The second largest skull.	75 in total Bone Block, Coal Ore, or Deepslate Diamond Ore
fossil/skull_3 fossil/skull_3_coal	The second smallest skull.	58 in total Bone Block, Coal Ore, or Deepslate Diamond Ore
fossil/skull_4 fossil/skull_4_coal	The smallest skull, one-eyed.	32 in total Bone Block, Coal Ore, or Deepslate Diamond Ore
fossil/spine_1 fossil/spine_1_coal	The narrowest spine.	37 in total Bone Block, Coal Ore, or Deepslate Diamond Ore
fossil/spine_2 fossil/spine_2_coal	The second narrowest spine.	61 in total Bone Block, Coal Ore, or Deepslate Diamond Ore
fossil/spine_3 fossil/spine_3_coal	The second widest spine.	97 in total Bone Block, Coal Ore, or Deepslate Diamond Ore
fossil/spine_4 fossil/spine_4_coal	The widest spine.	121 in total Bone Block, Coal Ore, or Deepslate Diamond Ore

Data values

ID

Java Edition:

Feature type	Identifier
[No displayed name]	fossil

Configured feature	Identifier
[No displayed name]	fossil_coal
[No displayed name]	fossil_diamonds

Bedrock Edition:

Feature	Identifier
[No displayed name]	fossil_feature
[No displayed name]	deepslate_diamond_fossil_feature

Config

Java Edition:

{
  "type": "minecraft:fossil",
  "config": {
    "fossil_processors": "minecraft:fossil_rot",
    "fossil_structures": [
      "minecraft:fossil/spine_1",
      "minecraft:fossil/spine_2",
      "minecraft:fossil/spine_3",
      "minecraft:fossil/spine_4",
      "minecraft:fossil/skull_1",
      "minecraft:fossil/skull_2",
      "minecraft:fossil/skull_3",
      "minecraft:fossil/skull_4"
    ],
    "max_empty_corners_allowed": 4,
    "overlay_processors": "minecraft:fossil_coal",
    "overlay_structures": [
      "minecraft:fossil/spine_1_coal",
      "minecraft:fossil/spine_2_coal",
      "minecraft:fossil/spine_3_coal",
      "minecraft:fossil/spine_4_coal",
      "minecraft:fossil/skull_1_coal",
      "minecraft:fossil/skull_2_coal",
      "minecraft:fossil/skull_3_coal",
      "minecraft:fossil/skull_4_coal"
    ]
  }
}

The placement of fossil is hardcoded (for its lowest point) with 2 steps in order:

1. It takes minimum value between OCEAN_FLOOR_WG heightmap and original placement position;
2. It takes maximum value between 10 blocks above bottom of the world and placement position from first step minus 15-24 (randomly).

History

Reveal

Java Edition

Bedrock Edition

Legacy Console Edition

New Nintendo 3DS Edition

Issues

Issues relating to "Fossil" are maintained on the bug tracker. Issues should be reported and viewed there.

Gallery

Renders

Skulls

Spines

Screenshots

• 
  A fossil that generated inside a cave
• 
  Excavating the fossil
• 
  All skull and spine structures, excluding those made of coal ore
• 
  Fossil generated on a superflat world. Some bone blocks are removed/replaced with coal ores.
• 
  A fossil that has been excavated
• 
  A partially excavated fossil underground
• 
  A fossil whose bone block is partly replaced by deepslate diamond ore
• 
  The smallest skull fossil and largest spine fossil together compared to the largest mob, the ender dragon
• 
  The same from above
• 
  Many fossils that have generated on a superflat world in a swamp biome
• 
  A fossil that has generated underwater, inside an underwater ravine
• 
  A fossil that generated mid-air in a flooded cave
• 
  A fossil generated at the bottom of an ocean
• 
  A fossil generated in an ocean ravine
• 
  Another fossil generated at the bottom of an ocean
• 
  A fossil that generated just below the seafloor
• 
  A fossil generated partially exposed to air in a desert biome
• 
  A fossil generated in a trial chamber

See also

• Feature
• Nether fossil

References