Fossil Field Lab
Piece together a dinosaur dig map using intersecting row and column clues. This free fossil game turns a field notebook into a spatial logic puzzle: decide where the fossil squares belong, record the surrounding sediment, and check whether your evidence agrees.
Fossil Field Lab
A field notebook logic puzzle
How to play the fossil excavation puzzle
- Choose one of three sites. Start with the 5 × 5 map if this is your first nonogram puzzle.
- Read the numbers beside each row and above each column. They describe consecutive runs of fossil squares, with at least one sediment square between runs.
- Select Fossil or Sediment, then tap a square to record it. Use Erase or tap the same tool again to clear a mark. Keyboard players can use arrow keys and Enter or Space.
- Record every square, then submit your field report. A correct map completes the site. An incorrect complete report uses one of your three attempts and identifies the lines to revise.
- Use up to two survey hints if you get stuck. After three incorrect reports you can study a solution or restart. There is no countdown.
Why fossil positions matter
Finding a fossil is the beginning of an investigation. Its position in a rock layer and its relationship to other remains help preserve the evidence needed to interpret a site. In this game, the map and its coordinates encourage careful observation rather than hurried clicking.
Real excavations are more complex than this puzzle. The National Park Service explains that bones and teeth are body fossils, and that remains can become separated before burial. An excavated fossil may be part of a scattered collection of bones rather than a complete skeleton. Read the National Park Service guide to body fossils.
A field skill you can use
If you encounter a fossil in a US national park, photograph it, record where it is, leave it in place, and tell a ranger. That preserves its scientific context. See the National Park Service fossil conservation advice.
What this game teaches
Each board practises spatial reasoning, coordinate reading, checking several observations together, and revising an explanation when evidence disagrees. The numbered clues and invented fossil arrangements are puzzle rules; real researchers do not use row totals to predict a buried skeleton.