"Night At The Museum": Animal Crossing New Horizons Fan Makes Incredible Discovery About Dinosaur Fossils

Published Apr 13, 2025

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Fans are discovering a hidden feature of dinosaur fossils in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, thanks to a Reddit post. The whimsical island decorating game has many collectibles to round up, including fossils of dinosaurs and other extinct critters. These fossils can be appraised by the island's hardworking museum curator, Blathers the owl, and most end up on display in the museum. Some players take the extras and put them up as decorations around their island, but it turns out that some of the fossil displays hide a secret.

Reddit BRAIN__WORMS shared a brief video of their character interacting with a Triceratops fossil head, causing it to move. The comments to the post are full of delighted fans who had no idea this was a feature in the beloved cozy game. Only four fossils are interactive in the game, and their discovery is always a fun surprise for fans.

Which Animal Crossing: New Horizons Dinosaur Fossils Are Interactive?

Only Some Of The Bones Come Alive At The Hands Of Players

The interactive element of fossils is restricted to only a handful of the dinosaur bone displays. This aspect of the game has technically been known for a while, but it's so rare and well-hidden that it gets rediscovered every few years. The following fossils can be interacted with when they're put out on display around the island:

Tyrannosaurus Rex skull
Triceratops skull
Prachycephalosaurus skull
Spinosaurus skull

These fossils will react in different ways when the player interacts with them. The T-Rex display, for instance, will open and close its mouth, while the Tricaratops slowly moves its head up and down. It's also worth noting that the only interactive part of the dinosaur fossils is the skull half (interacting with the body or tail segments doesn't have any effect). The dinosaur also doesn't have to be part of a full skeleton; just having the front part on display is enough to get it to move.

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Animal Crossing New Horizons Blathers looking surprised

For many, the movement of the dinosaurs is a fun feature that makes them think of the movie Night at the Museum, where the dinosaur fossils in the American Museum of Natural History come to life at night. For others, though, the dino discovery is a reminder of the many Easter eggs and hidden features in the much-loved game from Nintendo. Over the years, players have found many fun hidden features, like dancing skeletons, playable ocarinas, and more.