Prehistoric Farm Dig Sites: Where to Find Them and How to Start Digging

Dig sites in Prehistoric Farm are not at spawn — they are the dig spots on the offshore fossil islands. To start your first excavation, take a boat from the spawn area to the nearest fossil island (it is less than a minute away), walk up to a visible dig spot, hold your shovel down on it, and let go while the meter is in the green. Here is where the sites are, exactly how the dig interaction works, and what each island demands before it lets you dig.

Where dig sites are located

Every dig site sits on a fossil island off from spawn; the spawn island itself has none. Access is by boat — the official Explore tips say to "Buy bigger boats and sail to new fossil islands," and in one recorded first session the player's entire sail from spawn to the first dig island took less than a minute.

The islands are named after geological periods. The game's roster lists Cambrian, Devonian, Triassic, Jurassic, Cretaceous and "Cretaceous seas." The recorded session dug on Cambrian Island first, later dug on Devonian Island, and sailed toward Triassic Island and Jurassic Island, so those are real destinations on the water. Whether every roster entry — "Cretaceous seas" in particular — is a separately visitable island is not shown.

Plan on boat travel, not swimming. The recorded player nearly drowned twice reaching an island shore, so treat your boat as the only safe way between dig sites.

You will know a dig area when you land on one: dig spots are visible directly on the island's ground, with a small dig site station object standing nearby.

How to start an excavation

1. Sail to a fossil island. The first dig island is under a minute from spawn; farther fossil islands open up as you buy bigger boats.
2. Walk up to a dig spot on the island's ground.
3. Hold down on the dig site with your shovel. The official How To Play says to "Grab your shovel and hold down on a dig site."
4. Release while the meter is in the green. The official text promises "a better find" for letting go at the right moment, and the GameTio FAQ restates the same interaction: release when the meter reaches green.
5. Check the result and dig again. A successful release pops out a reward on the spot — usually a fossil, occasionally something else like buried treasure.

Expect misses. The recorded player's first digs returned "No fossil" over and over, and he concluded "we have to like get lucky to get a fossil." That is normal: individual digs are chance-based, so stay on the spot and repeat the hold-and-release. Sites stay usable across the session, too — the recorded player returned to Cambrian Island more than once to keep digging.

What dig sites require

Two separate progressions gate you: your shovel decides where you can dig, and your boat decides where you can go.

Shovel tier gates the digging. With the starter shovel, the recorded player could dig only in the Cambrian area — the spawn-area shovel shop told him "you need better shovels. Start digging in different parts." The shop sells a Bronze shovel for 2,500 coins, and buying it immediately unlocked digging on Devonian Island. The gate is visible on site as well: sailing to a later island with the starter shovel, every attempt was refused ("I need a better shovel… So, I can't dig up any of this"). A Silver shovel also appears in the shop above Bronze, so at least one further tier exists — its price was not shown. For more on upgrading, see the shovel guide.

Bigger boats gate the destinations. New fossil islands open behind bigger boats, per the official text. In the recorded session the next boat cost 4,000 coins, which the player could not yet afford — so if an island stays out of reach, the boat tier, not the island, is usually what is blocking you.

How dig sites differ

Each island yields its own period's fossils. Cambrian digs fill a six-fossil set — the recorded player tracked "we in the Cam period, we have three out of six" — with Hallucigenia, Pikaia, Opabinia and plenty of trilobites among his finds. Devonian Island held, in his words, "just a bunch of Deonian period fossils there." So before sailing somewhere new, know that the island's name tells you which fossil set you are digging toward.

Luck and release timing shape each dig. "No fossil" results are frequent, and letting go with the meter in the green gives "a better find" than a sloppy release.

Availability changes with time of day. Digging is not restricted to daylight: at night, dig sites visibly glow, and the recorded player navigated back to Cambrian Island after dark by looking for "a glowing dig site." No source explains what the glow actually changes, so treat it as a navigation aid rather than a sign of better loot.

Where digging leads

Dig sites are the input for the rest of the loop: collect a full set of an island's fossils and bring them to Dr. Ivy to grow an egg — the fossil sets page tracks those sets, and the fossils guide explains what your finds unlock. To squeeze more out of every spot you stand on, the digging timing guide covers the release-timing side of the dig in depth.