Stone Bone — curated by Tilly's Keeper
A growing collection of fossils, each one millions of years in the making. Named for the Tagalog words for stone and bone — because that's all a fossil really is. Deep time, held in your hands.
March 19, 2022. The Smithsonian gift shop. A small trilobite sitting in a white box — half a billion years old, waiting for someone to take her home.
I didn't know she'd be the start of something. I just knew I couldn't leave her there.
Now she sits at the center of a growing collection, surrounded by ancient fish, ammonites, and a tooth from a shark that ruled oceans before humans existed. She's still the smallest. She's still the first.
Each specimen cataloged with its age, formation, and origin — click any specimen to learn more
Notes, stories, and discoveries along the way
June 2026
It started as a delivery of fossils and ended with informational cards, QR codes, and a trilobite from 2022 finally getting the display she deserved. How a kitchen counter became a natural history exhibit.
Read entry →March 2022
She was sitting in a white box at the Smithsonian gift shop. Half a billion years old. Twelve dollars. I didn't know she'd change everything.
Read entry →I'm a fossil collector, lifelong dreamer, and the kind of person who makes museum-quality informational cards for specimens on her kitchen counter. I believe that holding something millions of years old is the closest we get to touching deep time — and that everyone deserves to feel that kind of wonder.
Bato Buto is Tagalog for "Stone Bone" — which is really all a fossil is. This site is where I document a growing collection and the stories each specimen carries.
Future plans include joining the Natural History Society of Maryland, fossil hunting at Calvert Cliffs, and filling a display case in an apartment that's entirely my own.
— Tilly's Keeper 🦣