Prehistoric Farm Dr. Ivy: Where to Find Her and Trade Fossils for an Egg

Dr. Ivy is Prehistoric Farm's restoration NPC: she turns a complete fossil set into a dinosaur egg. You'll find her at the DNA Lab on the home island where you spawn. Sail back, walk into the lab, and use her "Trade fossils for an egg" prompt once you're holding a full set for one species — she hands you an egg, and the incubator does the rest. This page covers the route to her, the requirement you must meet first, and what happens after the turn-in.

Where to find Dr. Ivy

The game's official description names the destination plainly: unearth ancient fossils across wild islands and "turn them into eggs at Dr. Ivy's DNA Lab." That lab stands on the home island — the same spawn area you start the game on.

Reaching her means a boat trip whenever a set finishes while you're out digging. In a recorded playthrough, the player sails back to the spawn area mid-session, recognizes home by its landmarks — a waterfall and his own ranch — and then walks from the ranch straight to the DNA lab. Inside, Dr. Ivy introduces herself: "I'm Dr. Ivy. I bring fossils back to life. Got any samples for me?" That self-introduction is your confirmation you've found the right NPC. Later in the same session, the player sails "back to the home island" a second time, specifically to create another dinosaur from fossils — every turn-in points home. If you're still on the starter boat, expect a slow ride; the boats guide covers faster options. The footage this route comes from is undated, so if an update ever rearranges the home island, the lab's exact position is the first thing to recheck.

What Dr. Ivy does

Dr. Ivy's job is one specific step in the dinosaur pipeline, and it helps to keep the game's named parts separate:

• Your shovel and dig sites produce the fossils (see Prehistoric Farm fossils).
• Dr. Ivy at the DNA Lab takes your complete set and grows an egg — nothing hatches at her counter.
• The incubator warms that egg until it hatches.
• Your ranch is where the hatched dinosaur lives, eats and grows.

Her own line sums up the middle step: "I bring fossils back to life." The official How To Play compresses the same loop into bullets — collect a full set of fossils and bring them to Dr. Ivy to grow an egg, warm the egg in the incubator, and watch it hatch.

This page is about the NPC herself: where she stands, what she requires, and what she gives you. For the lab building and everything around it in detail, see the DNA Lab guide.

What you need before she'll trade

One prerequisite: a complete fossil set. The official How To Play says to "collect a full set of fossils and bring them to Dr. Ivy to grow an egg," and GameTio's FAQ states the same requirement with its result: "Bring a complete fossil set to Dr Ivy to obtain an egg, then place it in the incubator."

You can watch your progress in the fossil menu, which counts each species' set separately. In the recorded session, the Cambrian page reads "three out of six," then "we need two more for DNA" — so the Cambrian set is six fossils. When the last piece drops, the status changes to "Ready to extract DNA." That's your signal: the set is done and it's time to take it home to Dr. Ivy. The player in the footage wonders aloud whether DNA can be extracted right at the dig site, and resolves the question by carrying the fossils to her, where the trade works.

Two practical notes from that same session: the six-fossil count is the only set size it confirms — other species' set sizes aren't shown — and digging was locked to the Cambrian area until the player saved up 2,500 coins for a bronze shovel, so your first complete set will most likely be a Cambrian one. The fossil sets page and shovel guide cover the collection side in depth.

How the trade works

When you stand in front of Dr. Ivy with a finished set, the interaction is a single prompt: "Trade fossils for an egg." Using it hands over the set and produces an egg of that species — the recorded run trades Tectalic fossils for a Tectalic egg this way. From there, the next move is the incubator: "Now let's incubate the egg."

1. Complete a species' fossil set until you see "Ready to extract DNA."
2. Sail back to the spawn/home island — the waterfall and your ranch are the landmarks to steer by.
3. Walk into the DNA Lab and talk to Dr. Ivy.
4. Use "Trade fossils for an egg" and carry the egg she gives you to the incubator.

After the turn-in: incubator, then ranch

The official How To Play ends the loop like this: "Warm your egg in the incubator and watch it hatch." How long that takes varies. The playthrough's first egg needed about five minutes of incubation, while a later Tectalic egg counted down "2 minutes and 30 seconds" — both from one undated session, so treat them as a rough range rather than fixed per-species timers. The incubator guide covers the hatching step on its own.

Once the egg hatches, collect your new dinosaur and place it on the ranch. From there the rule is simple: "keep your dino's belly over half full so it keeps growing" — and once it's grown, you can hop on and ride it. The dinosaur growth guide picks up from the moment your hatchling lands.

Finishing sets takes a lot of digging, and shovels and boats aren't cheap, so current freebies can ease the coin grind — see the Prehistoric Farm codes page. For the building Dr. Ivy works out of, head to the DNA Lab guide; for the full fossil-to-hatchling pipeline in one place, the DNA restoration guide walks the entire loop.