A fossil is a rarely-occurring skeletal feature composed of bone blocks, coal ore, or diamond ore.
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 will not override original terrian 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, or deepslate diamond ore for fossils that 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 will 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 the NBT structure block file format and have NBT 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_1fossil/skull_1_coal
|
The largest skull. |
86 in total Bone Block, Coal Ore, or Deepslate Diamond Ore |
 |
fossil/skull_2fossil/skull_2_coal
|
The second largest skull. |
75 in total Bone Block, Coal Ore, or Deepslate Diamond Ore |
 |
fossil/skull_3fossil/skull_3_coal
|
The second smallest skull. |
58 in total Bone Block, Coal Ore, or Deepslate Diamond Ore |
 |
fossil/skull_4fossil/skull_4_coal
|
The smallest skull, one-eyed. |
32 in total Bone Block, Coal Ore, or Deepslate Diamond Ore |
 |
fossil/spine_1fossil/spine_1_coal
|
The narrowest spine. |
37 in total Bone Block, Coal Ore, or Deepslate Diamond Ore |
 |
fossil/spine_2fossil/spine_2_coal
|
The second narrowest spine. |
61 in total Bone Block, Coal Ore, or Deepslate Diamond Ore |
 |
fossil/spine_3fossil/spine_3_coal
|
The second widest spine. |
97 in total Bone Block, Coal Ore, or Deepslate Diamond Ore |
 |
fossil/spine_4fossil/spine_4_coal
|
The widest spine. |
121 in total Bone Block, Coal Ore, or Deepslate Diamond Ore |
 |
Data values[]
ID[]
| Configured feature | Identifier |
|---|---|
| [No displayed name] | fossil_coal |
| [No displayed name] | fossil_diamonds |
| Feature | Identifier |
|---|---|
| [No displayed name] | fossil_feature |
| [No displayed name] | deepslate_diamond_fossil_feature |
History[]
| May 13, 2016 | ProfMobius tweets an image of the new structure blocks in action, generating what appears to be a fossil made of quartz. | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Java Edition | |||||
| 1.10 | 16w20a | Added fossils. | |||
| September 28, 2019 | Prerelease footage of the soul sand valley biome at MINECON Live 2019 appears to have used these fossils (as opposed to the distinct nether fossils). | ||||
| 1.16 | 20w22a | Fossils can no longer overwrite desert pyramids or the end portal room of strongholds. | |||
| 1.17 | 21w06a | Fossils can now generate in the air due to a bug.[2] | |||
| 21w10a | Fossils that generate below Y=0 now generate with either normal or deepslate diamond ore instead of coal ore. | ||||
| Fossils can no longer generate in the air. | |||||
| 21w15a | Because world generation has been reverted, fossils generate the way they did before the 1.17 snapshots. | ||||
| 1.18 | Experimental Snapshot 1 | The fossil generation changes in the 1.17 snapshots have been reintroduced. | |||
| experimental snapshot 5 | Fossils with diamond ore no longer generate above the deepslate level. | ||||
| Pocket Edition | |||||
| 1.1.3 | alpha 1.1.3.0 | Added fossils. | |||
| Bedrock Edition | |||||
| 1.18.10 | beta 1.18.10.21 | Fossils that generate below Y=0 now generate with either normal or deepslate diamond ore instead of coal ore. | |||
| Legacy Console Edition | |||||
| TU43 | CU33 | 1.36 | Patch 13 | 1.0.1 | Added fossils. |
| New Nintendo 3DS Edition | |||||
| 1.9.19 | Added fossils. | ||||
Issues[]
Issues relating to "Fossil" are maintained on the bug tracker. Report issues there.
Trivia[]
- Hidden in the structure NBT is data that credits ProfMobius with the creation of the fossils.
Gallery[]
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.
Odd generation[]
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.
