Thanks to our nearly 1500 Kickstarter backers for bringing Fossil Canyon to life!
Order now on Amazon!
A four-player game in progress.
What’s in the box?
Playing Cards
74 heavyweight linen-finish tarot-sized cards featuring accurate dinosaur illustrations and fascinating facts
18 heavyweight linen-finish poker-sized event cards
Game Pieces
36 wood puzzle scoring pieces with a bonus puzzle on the backs from acclaimed paleoartist Franco Tempesta
6 wood player tokens
Rule and Science Booklets
20-page rulebook covering competitive, cooperative, solo, and other game variants
16-page companion science booklet about the science behind the game
What’s on a card?
Each card is a colorful, fact-filled exploration of a famous North American reptile from the Mesozoic Era.
Gameplay is simple enough for young players while providing strategic options for more serious players. Fun for the whole family! Click here to download the rulebook.
Dig
Take a new card from the dig site. Will you get all the fossils you need to complete a skeleton?
Trade
Exchange cards with other players to form a complete skeleton or earn a research award.
Build
Your completed skeletons and research awards attract visitors to your museum. Earn bonuses for the theme of your museum. The museum with the most annual visitors wins!
How to Play
Cooperative, Solo, and Other Ways to Play
Fossil Canyon has a cooperative/solo mode called “Cretaceous Creek!”
You can play other games with the Fossil Canyon cards, including adaptations of traditional card games and new games that you invent.
Fossil Canyon is designed to spark kids' interest in science.
Dinosaur Facts
Fossil Canyon is loaded with details that can deepen the knowledge of even the most dedicated dinosaur lovers. Learn when each dinosaur lived, what their names mean, and some surprising facts.
Want to learn more?
See our recommended reading.
Compare your skeleton to SUE, the world’s most complete T. rex skeleton, mounted at the Field Museum.
Fossil Science
Discover fascinating creatures from the Mesozoic Era from the playing cards, and learn more about the science behind the game from the companion booklet!
(Want even more? Follow a Field dinosaur dig, learn the basics of fossil hunting, and see how the continents shifted over time.)
Strategic Thinking
Fossil Canyon is easy for even young children to play, but it also rewards paying attention to the fossils that have appeared, reasoning about probabilities, and strategy, particularly if you decide to play with the optional end-game bonuses.
STEM Authenticated
In addition to being fun for the whole family, Fossil Canyon is STEM.org authenticated as an educational product. Learn while you play!
"A fantastic and accessible set collection family game."
Meeple Mountain
“With four kids ranging from 5 to 15, it’s almost impossible for us to find a game the entire family can play together and actually enjoy, but Fossil Canyon fits that bill perfectly.”
GeekDad
“[Polymath Play] did an excellent job incorporating education without diluting the mechanics or gameplay of Fossil Canyon. It’s refreshing when the integration of real world science flows with the gameplay.”
One Board Family
"When I see games listed as STEM, I'm usually skeptical, but Fossil Canyon delivers as soon as you open the box."
Board Game Quest
"This is the coolest new way to score a game I have ever seen!”
Edo’s Game Reviews
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Such a fun game for all ages.
Patrick, Canada
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Absolutely love the game. Fingers crossed for an expansion in the future!
Matthew, US
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Superb quality, especially the wooden pieces.
Jason, France
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WOW! It's really fun. My 7yo dino loving son loved it and was able to easily grasp the rules and even my wife kept wanting to play again. The artwork is absolutely phenomenal!
Chris, US
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We got it last Friday, and played all weekend - me, my husband, his mom, and the now-6-year-old. I want to recommend it to all the parents I know!
Erin, US
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This game will appeal to dinosaur enthusiasts of all ages, as well as those who enjoy card-collection board games. There is something for everyone in this game.
Steven, US
GAME DESIGNER
Kevin Lynch
Kevin is a professor of mechanical engineering and director of the Center for Robotics and Biosystems at Northwestern University. He is an award-winning instructor who has co-authored three textbooks, and his online courses in robotics are taken by thousands of students around the world. Kevin’s two young children were the inspiration and first game testers for Fossil Canyon.
GRAPHIC DESIGNER
Nathan Martel
Nathan is a graphic designer and software developer. He primarily works with universities and other mission-driven organizations to give their important educational messages a visual voice. He is also an avid board game enthusiast.
SCIENCE ADVISOR
Akiko Shinya
Akiko is the chief preparator of fossil vertebrates at the Field Museum in Chicago. She discovered Gualicho shinyae, a bipedal carnivorous theropod from the late Cretaceous distantly related to Allosaurus, on a dig in Argentina in 2007. (The genus name Gualicho is derived from a demon of local folklore.) Akiko spends several weeks each year in the field prospecting and excavating fossils. She manages three labs at the Field Museum, where she leads her team of staff, students, and volunteers in the preparation of vertebrate fossils from all over the world.
Proudly partnering with the Field Museum of Chicago
The Field Museum is a forward-thinking scientific leader on a mission to explore, protect, and celebrate nature and culture. For over 125 years, the Field has taken part in groundbreaking research all over the world while maintaining one of the world’s largest collections of artifacts and specimens, used to inspire discovery, spark public engagement with science, and uncover solutions for a better world.