Prehistoric Farm DNA Lab: Find Dr. Ivy and Trade Fossils for an Egg

Dr. Ivy's DNA Lab is on Prehistoric Farm's home or spawn island, near your ranch. Return there by boat after a fossil trip, walk from the ranch to the lab, and find Dr. Ivy. Her exchange turns a complete fossil set for one species into that species' egg. Incubation follows at the lab; the hatchery is the next stop when the countdown ends.

Finding the lab from a dig island

1. Sail back to the home island. In the recorded playthrough, the player recognized spawn by the waterfall and his ranch, then made the same return trip for a later egg.
2. Walk from the ranch to the DNA Lab. The footage supports this island-level route, but does not establish coordinates, a map icon, a building sign or a fixed compass direction.
3. Find Dr. Ivy, who introduces herself and asks whether you have samples. That interaction identifies the fossil exchange.

These directions come from one undated gameplay session. If the map changes, recheck the lab's position rather than treating the remembered waterfall as a permanent navigation marker.

What you can do at the lab

Bring a complete fossil set for the animal you want to restore. Talking to Dr. Ivy and choosing Trade fossils for an egg produced a Tectalic egg in the recorded session. The official How To Play also identifies a full set and Dr. Ivy as the requirement and destination. The available evidence does not establish a complete species catalogue or a trade fee.

For collection progress and the full conversion sequence, use the DNA restoration guide. This page covers the lab as a place and the interactions available there.

Incubation and the countdown

The official instructions put incubation after the fossil trade. In the footage, a countdown runs at the lab: about five minutes for a first egg and 2 minutes 30 seconds for a later Tectalic egg. Those are two observations, not a rule about every species or rarity. Check the countdown for your own egg.

The sources do not resolve whether a distinct manual placement action is always needed to start incubation. Follow the in-game interaction and confirm that the countdown has started. The player could fish while it ran; waiting beside Dr. Ivy was unnecessary. The incubator guide covers the timer and pickup in more detail.

After the timer ends

Collect the hatched animal at the hatchery, then place it on your ranch. The hatchery pickup is separate from Dr. Ivy's fossil exchange. Feeding and growth begin after this handoff; see dinosaur eggs and dinosaur raising for the next steps.

The shovel seller appears near this part of the recorded trip, but its exact position relative to the lab is unknown. It is not documented as another lab service.