A fossil is a skeletal structure composed of bone blocks, coal ore or deepslate diamond ore.(upcoming Minecraft 1.17)
Generation
Fossils randomly generate 15–24 blocks at y-coordinates from 40 to 49 underground in the Overworld (deserts, swamps, and their variants). Each chunk has a 1⁄64 chance to generate a fossil. They may generate as one of the four variants of skull or one of the four variants of spine.
Fossils first generate the pure-bone block fossil with a structure integrity of 0.9, meaning 10% of blocks are replaced with structure voids. Next, the coal/deepslate diamond ore fossil generates with a structure integrity of 0.1.
Structure
Note that naturally generated fossils are composed of a mix of bone blocks, coal or deepslate diamond ores, and structure voids, as detailed above. They are made with the NBT structure block format and have NBT files for each type of fossil located in the folder minecraft.jar/data/minecraft/structures/fossil.
| Structure name | Description | Consists of | Image |
|---|---|---|---|
| skull_1 | The largest skull. | 86 Bone Block |
|
| skull_1_coal | Skull_1 being petrified. | 86 Coal Ore | |
| skull_2 | The second largest skull. | 75 Bone Block |
|
| skull_2_coal | Skull_2 being petrified. | 75 Coal Ore | |
| skull_3 | The second smallest skull. | 58 Bone Block |
|
| skull_3_coal | Skull_3 being petrified. | 58 Coal Ore | |
| skull_4 | The smallest skull, one-eyed. | 32 Bone Block |
|
| skull_4_coal | Skull_4 being petrified. | 32 Coal Ore | |
| spine_1 | The narrowest spine. | 37 Bone Block |
|
| spine_1_coal | Spine_1 being petrified. | 37 Coal Ore | |
| spine_2 | The second narrowest spine. | 61 Bone Block |
|
| spine_2_coal | Spine_2 being petrified. | 61 Coal Ore | |
| spine_3 | The second widest spine. | 97 Bone Block |
|
| spine_3_coal | Spine_3 being petrified. | 97 Coal Ore | |
| spine_4 | The widest spine. | 121 Bone Block |
|
| spine_4_coal | Spine_4 being petrified. | 121 Coal Ore |
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. | |||
| Upcoming Java Edition | |||||
| 1.17 | 21w10a | Fossils that generate below Y=0 now generate with Deepslate Diamond Ore instead of Coal Ore. | |||
| Fossils can no longer generate in the air [1] | |||||
| Pocket Edition | |||||
| 1.1.3 | alpha 1.1.3.0 | Added fossils. | |||
| 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
- Fossil are one of the five generated structures that do not have a loot chest (the others being swamp huts, desert wells, nether fossil and ocean monuments).
- The one-eyed skull variant is based on an incident where the Ancient Greeks mistook mammoth fossils for the bones of a cyclops.
- The author of Fossil is ProfMobius. This is written in the structure NBT.
- The 4th fossil skeleton (spine_4 and skull_4 together) at 17 blocks long and at 9 blocks wide, may have belonged to the largest mob to have ever existed. It is even 1 block longer than the Ender Dragon.
Gallery
Fossil generated on a superflat world. Some bone blocks are removed/replaced with coal ores.
Odd generation
A fossil that has generated underwater, inside an underwater ravine.
















