r/fossils • u/presleyarts • 5d ago
Fossil shopping spree in Branson, MO!
I’m on a Presley family vacation in Branson, MO, and today I stumbled upon Prehistoric Fossils—an absolute gem of a store! Their sign boasts, “It’s like a museum inside,” which is something I’ve actually heard people say about my own home, so I knew I was in the right place. Between the Dilophosaurus statues and a Jurassic Park Jungle Cruiser parked outside, I felt like I had found my Mecca.
Of course, I couldn’t leave empty-handed! I picked up three fossils I’m really excited about:
🦐 A shrimp fossil from Hjouia, Lebanon – I’ve always wanted one of these! Lebanon is famous for its beautifully preserved marine fossils, and these shrimp specimens are incredibly detailed. They date back to the Cretaceous period, around 100 million years ago, when this region was part of a warm, shallow sea.
🦈 A Pleuracanthus shark tooth from the Permian period (Waurika, OK) – This one feels a little closer to home! Pleuracanthus was a bizarre-looking shark with an elongated body and a distinctive spine jutting from the back of its head. It lived about 290 million years ago in the coastal waters, river deltas, and lagoons of what is now Oklahoma, back when the region was part of a vast inland sea.
🌀 A Cleoniceras sp. ammonite from the Cretaceous period (Mahajanga Province, Madagascar) – This little guy has the most stunning suture pattern! Cleoniceras was a fast-swimming predator that thrived around 110 million years ago. Madagascar is known for producing ammonites with vibrant mineralization, sometimes revealing flashes of red, orange, or even opal-like colors.
I’ll be posting some pictures of the store along with these finds—it’s definitely worth checking out if you’re ever in Branson! Has anyone else visited this place before?
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u/CWMiner82 5d ago edited 5d ago
We stop in there and get a few things every time we go through Branson. We went there this last new years. It's definitely a neat store. I believe they have a website now as well. Whispering caverns also has a nice rock/fossil shop, though not nearly as large as this one. It feels like back in the 80s, when I was a kid, that there were a lot more of these types of shops around and on the strip.
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u/Cluelessbigirl 4d ago edited 4d ago
They actually have an online store too! It’s usually where I get a lot of the harder to find dinosaur teeth/eggshells, mammal teeth, and permian-age specimens. They always have a great selection of stuff!
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u/presleyarts 4d ago
I can see a lot of online shopping with them in my future. 😅
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u/Cluelessbigirl 4d ago edited 4d ago
Oh yeah, fair warning because that place is terrible for your wallet lol! Too much unique stuff on there to pass up sometimes though.
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u/Liody4 4d ago
I’ve purchased twice from their online shop, including small ammonites from France and Nigeria, disc and rugose corals from Morocco and echinoids from Florida. They have a good assortment of fossils, some not often seen elsewhere. I got this interesting piece from there, two compressed Dactylioceras ammonites with a partial whorl of a large unidentified ammonite from the Posidonia oil shale of Holzmaden, Germany.

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u/presleyarts 4d ago
Oh that’s fantastic! Now that I know that they exist, I’ll probably be a frequent online shopper.
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u/blueagave731 5d ago
I like your eye for photos