Fossil Sorting Kit

SKU #FSL-800

(34 reviews)

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$16.95

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Each bag contains at least 120 assorted fossils and a sorting guide.

Description

Each two-pound bag typically contains more than 100 assorted fossils along with a sorting guide. This kit is perfect for introducing students to organisms that existed more than 400 million years ago! The sorting guide includes pictures of many of the fossils along with information about their approximate age and modern relatives. Kit typically contains fossilized ammonites, trilobites, coral, gastropods, and at least three other types of fossils. While we do our best, we cannot guarantee exactly which fossils or how many of each will be in each package.

Read more on our Blog - Fossil Dig

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Reviews

34 reviews

Great samples for middle school science

Jan 25, 2024

This was a great kit for hands on learning and making observations. There were a few trilobites and plenty of ammonites in each bag. Highly recommend for middle school and younger.

Angela

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always great

Nov 20, 2022

always interesting and very useful if you don't have a real site to access for fossils.

Mary Hughes

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So fun!

May 4, 2021

My kiddos loved "finding" fossils! We hide them and let them dig them up in various spots in our yard. It's been fun and there are enough to be able to do a few every couple days. We call it fossil day!! Would definitely recommend for a fun and educational activity.

Momof6

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Great Fossils, easy to ID

Oct 7, 2020

Got this for my kids to learn how to sort (basic classification). My 8 year old really enjoyed going through them. Getting them wet and scrubbing them with a toothbrush made them even more fun to look at. Will be able to use these for a few different projects, and they are really beautiful quality.

Jo Redfern

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Fantastic quality

Jun 19, 2020

The variety and quality of these fossils is really first rate. I've only cleaned about 1/3 of the bag, but I've found really interesting rocks and fossils in this mix. I have been learning to use a digital usb microscope and have gotten some amazing shots of the fossils I've found. I can't wait to make molds from some of these.

roger

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Fossils for sorting

Oct 7, 2019

My after school science club kids had fun sorting these--I had also added in the sharks tooth fossil set. They then matched them to the chart, but there was very little information on the chart, so we also tried to find them in a fossil field guide. We would appreciate a better chart.

Dorothy Bukantz

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Nice collection

Sep 13, 2018

Bought 5 kits thinking maybe some missing items. Sorted each and found good specimens for each listed fossil in each bag! Pulled out the few that were covered in matrix so students could practice being a paleontologist. Very happy with purchase. Arrived in record time.

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not bad

Dec 29, 2017

a nice assortment, though heavy in some items & very light in others--no trilobites

Mary Hughes

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Fossils!

Apr 17, 2017

This was definetly a bag of fossils! The mix is not very great only one ammonite and no trilobites a whole lot of corral.

Dawn Addleman

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Great Activity

Apr 10, 2017

I ordered one set first just to see what I would get and I was pleased with the collection. I work at a college as the technician and we are going to plan a lab around it. I have ordered two more sets since. We have not used them yet as it is too late in the semester, but I think the students will enjoy picking through the sets. I rinsed them once I received them in a mesh strainer and store them in a clear tote. Just one little complaint is that in the first set there were about 4 trilobites. In the two other sets there was zero in one and only 1 and 1/2 in the other. These are the special finds and I feel there could be a couple in each bag. I know it is random, but just to throw a couple on top would be easy? Just a thought.

Kimberly

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consumer

Jul 13, 2016

good activity in sorting and paleontology

Mary Hughes

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Dig It!

Jul 6, 2016

I used these fossils and the GREAT identification sheet at summer camp. I made a matrix, buried the fossils, and kids extracted them with used dental tools.

Fran Gibbs

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Preschool Fossil Dig

Mar 9, 2016

We held a Paleontology Day and put sand and the fossils together in a plastic tote and preschool age children used paint brushes to uncover the fossils for their very own dig.

Jill Aubin

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Fossilized Sharks teeth

Feb 18, 2016

Good assortment but would have really liked a bigger number of complete teeth. 300 teeth and maybe 50 whole ones. So I give 4 stars

Laura

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positive

Jul 26, 2015

good product

RICK WARD

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Great resource

Jun 26, 2015

I have used the fossil pack before for student observations but this summer they will use them to make molds in green sand.

Mary-Anne Richards

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Gloria

Apr 2, 2015

The fossils in the sorting kit are rough and weathered obscuring details. I had to wash and sort out the unusable pieces. Also, the molds will probably only work as a demo for my large middle school classes, not my original intent.

Mrs. M

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Fossil Sorting Kit

Feb 7, 2015

I was very pleased with the fossils included in this kit. Most were large and complete and there were many of them. I would certainly recommend this to anyone interested in fossils.

William Jimerson

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Great selection!

Oct 24, 2014

I teach science fellow home schooled elementary and middle school students. This is a great pack of fossils! I was glad to see an identification chart accompanying the bag. The kids had lots of fun digging through them and sharing their fossil stories! Most are in 1.5 inch and smaller range, but distinct and detailed fossils.

LaDonna

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Great Fossil Kit

Mar 17, 2014

We ordered the fossil kit to explore fossils with our third graders. The amount of fossils we received is amazing for one kit! They also have a great variety. If you study fossils, this is an excellent resource to have and I strongly recommend making the purchase.

Jolyn Collins

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Fossils

Feb 21, 2014

When we first received the bag of fossils we felt a little jipped as there were a lot of really small pieces and quite a few fossils that were broken with only 1 trillabite. The ones that were fair size and not broken were pretty awesome though. Next time I will go to an actual store to ensure that what I am buying is up to my expectations. The delivery and free shipping was very satisfactory. The price was also fair.

Eager Student

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Wonderful Product!

Jun 13, 2013

These will be great for my science class next year. My 7 year old also loved helping me sort them, and the quailty was so good, that I ended up giving him several for his collection.

Mrs.H

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Children's Librarian

May 9, 2013

When I received my package of fossils, I received a note telling me that due to a lack of availability of Trilobite fossils, I would be getting substitute fossils. Great, I thought...the one fossil every kid wants to see and there won't be any. Imagine my surprise when there were so many amazing fossils that the kids won't even miss the Trilobites! The Echinoid fossil that was sent in place of the Trilobite is truly amazing and will be one that is recognizable to the kids. I can't wait for fossil week during our Summer Reading program. The kids are going to have a great time identifying the fossils.

Charlotte Cunningham

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Buyer Beware

Apr 2, 2013

I received 2 pounds of primarily broken bits and pieces. I never expected to receive museum quality but more than 50% of the fossils were unidentifiable by my middle school students.

Jeff

Owner Response: Jeff, I'm so sorry you received a bad batch. Since these are true fossils there will always be some that are broken and possibly unrecognizable. They are priced with this in mind. However, the percentage should certainly not be over 50%! We will be more than happy to replace the product, or give you a full refund.

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Bag of fossils

Mar 13, 2013

We got what we paid for in these fossils very complete specimens of each excellent teaching tool and can be used for rewards or science fund raiser.

Don Stokes

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Good product

Mar 3, 2013

Used this product for a 4th class covering rocks and minerals. I made fossil digs with aluminum pans, sand, and pebbles and added the fossils to them. The kids had s great time looking for the fossils and had to sort through the pebbles to distinguish between the fossils and pebbles then identified them in the id sheet. There were some fossils in the set that were difficult to distinguish, but the whole project and product worked out very well.

Paula

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nice set

Dec 31, 2012

Well packed (double bagged). Disappointed there were no trilobites

James

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Fossils

Dec 28, 2012

We used these for a fossil dig at my daughter's 6th birthday party. The kids had a blast. They were much bigger than I anticipated!

Catalena's Mom

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Just what I needed!

Jul 3, 2012

Great product and fast shipping. Thanks for providing a wonderful resource for my students.

Sarah Gladu

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Genuine artifacts!

May 23, 2012

When kids sort them out, they think they are replicas; made with molds. With some small magnifiers, I challenge them to find 2 exactly the same. Of course they can't. They dig into it for hours and it goes great with the shark teeth, too.

Martin Roy

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Fossil Sorting Kit

May 22, 2012

I love this product! I bought these for my third graders as they studied fossils. There was a great assortment of fossils and I love that it came with a cheat sheet for identification! The kids even picked some fossils to take home and start their collections. Will be buying more!

Shanna Kays

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Add Fossils to your Geology Collection

May 22, 2012

Fossils, imagine being able to give your students something older than they think you are. I do rock identification workshops with classes. At the end of the workshop everyone takes home a geology collection with specimens that they have learned how to identify. These fossils are so reasonably priced that it is very affordable to add one to each geology kit. The identification sheet makes it easy for students to identify the fossil they selected.

kay Hibler

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Fossil Sorting Kit

May 22, 2012

I use this wonderful collection of fossils in a "mini-dig" for third graders, as part of a fossil lesson. My students find them, locate them on the description sheet, and describe them to classmates.Along with EI's shark teeth, this is an exciting, interactive way to learn about prehistory. I recently used the same kit for a home school day, and parents were as awed as their children!

Brandy Hartsell

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Perfect at home activity

May 16, 2012

I have ordered these several times to make my own fossil dig for kids and each time the assortment of fossils is great. You also get many more than I would have anticipated.

Michelle Bertke

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NGSS

This product will support your students' understanding of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)*, as shown in the table below.

Elementary

Middle School

High School

4-ESS1-1

Students can use the assorted fossils in the Fossil Sorting Kit to identify evidence, to identify patterns in rock formations and fossils in rock layers to support an explanation for changes in the landscape over time.

DCI-4/ESS1.C: The History of Planet Earth.

Local, regional, and global patterns of rock formations reveal changes over time due to earth forces, such as earthquakes. The presence and location of certain fossil types indicate the order in which rock layers were formed.

MS-ESS1-4

Students can use the assorted fossils in the Fossil Sorting Kit as evidence to construct a scientific explanation based on the fossil record from rock strata for how geologic time scale is used to organize Earth's 4.6-billion-year-old history.

MS-LS 4-1

Students can use the assorted fossils in the Fossil Sorting Kit to analyze and interpret data for patterns in the fossil record that document the existence, diversity, extinction, and change of life forms throughout the history of life on Earth under the assumption that natural laws operate today as in the past.

MS-LS 4-2

Students can use the assorted fossils in the Fossil Sorting Kit to apply scientific ideas to construct an explanation for the anatomical similarities and differences among modern organisms and between modern and fossil organisms to infer evolutionary relationships.

DCI-MS/ESS1.C: The History of Planet Earth.

The geologic time scale interpreted from the rock strata provides a way to organize Earth's history. Analysis of rock strata and fossil record provide only relative dates, not absolute scale.

DCI-MS/LS4.A: Evidence of Common Ancestry and Diversity.

The collection of fossils and their placement in chronological order is known as the fossil record. It documents the existence, diversity, extinction, and change of many life forms throughout the history of life on Earth. By reviewing anatomical similarities and differences between various organisms living today and organisms in the fossil record, we can reconstruct evolutionary history and interference of lines of evolutionary descent.

HS-ESS1-4

Students can use the anatomical structures of the assorted fossils in the Fossil Sorting Kit as evidence to communicate scientific information that common ancestry and biological evolution are supported by multiple line of empirical evidence.

HS-LS 4-5

Students can use the assorted fossils in the Fossil Sorting Kit and information about the fossil record to evaluate the evidence supporting claims that changes in environmental conditions may result in the extinction of species.

DCI-HS/LS4.C: Adaptation.

Species become extinct because they can no longer survive and reproduce in their altered environment. If members cannot adjust to change that is too fast or drastic, the opportunity for the species' evolution is lost.

Suggested Science Idea(s)

4-ESS1-1
MS-ESS1-4
MS-LS 4-1
MS-LS 4-2
HS-ESS1-4
HS-LS 4-5

Students can use the assorted fossils and Fossil Sorting Guide included in the Fossil Sorting Kit to gather information and evidence to support investigations for Geologic History. With close examination and research about the fossils, students can learn about the fossil record, Earth's History, common ancestry, diversity of life and adaptation. Any hands-on activity with fossils will create a strong foundation for Geologic History lessons at all grade levels.

* NGSS is a registered trademark of Achieve. Neither Achieve nor the lead states and partners that developed the Next Generation Science Standards were involved in the production of, and do not endorse, this product.

Fossil Sorting Kit

NGSS

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