About Us

We hope you will feel at home here as you browse each section. Please don't hesitate to contact us with questions or comments. And if you're not already a member, what are you waiting for?!

The Tampa Bay Fossil Club is a family oriented organization focusing on paleontology, archaeology, and everything prehistoric. Meetings are held monthly at the University of South Florida’s Tampa campus and features prominent speakers from many areas of science.

The Tampa Bay Fossil Club awards annual scholarships to students studying in the field of paleontology and geology. The 30+ year-old club hosts numerous field trips, campouts, gatherings, and adventures throughout its September through May seasons.

Come Join Us!

Florida emerged from the warm Atlantic Ocean about 30 million years ago, 35 million years after dinosaurs became extinct. For that reason, no one has ever found any dinosaur bones in Florida. However, ancient mammals and sharks thrived here, including such unusual creatures as two-story tall giant ground sloths, Volkswagen Beetle-size armadillos, tiny three-toed horses, humpless camels,hornless rhinos, fierce saber-toothed cats, massive mammoths and sharks as large as a Greyhound bus.

Florida's first people were here to witness--if not participate in--the demise of many of these animals some 10,000 to 15,000 years ago.

What Our Members Are Finding

Members typically share their fossil finds on our Facebook page.

However, some members also have their own YouTube channels and share their fossil hunting experiences through their videos. Below is a TBFC playlist containing many videos created by our very own TBFC members! Our club also has its own YouTube channel.

View Our Past Meeting Live Streams

COVID-19 has forced us to adapt!
Since in-person meetings were not possible during 2020 and the beginning of 2021, the club was able to continue to meet by hosting virtual live stream meetings on our YouTube channel.

For 2021-2022 In-Person meetings are allowed at USF again and we will continue to try to live stream the meetings! Stream quality may vary and some presenters may not want to be filmed. Therefore, not all meetings are guarnteed to be live streamed.

Subscribe to the channel to get notifications when we go live!

Missed the meeting and the live stream or just want to watch it again? You can view our past live stream meetings in the playlist below:

Follow Us on Instagram

We now have an Instagram account!

Follow us for information on club events and see what our members are finding and doing by using #TampaBayFossilClub when you post your next fossil find or attend a club event!

Happy Hunting!