List of U.S. state fossils

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File:Statefossil.png
Map showing which states have state fossils.

Though every state in the United States has a State Bird and a State Flower, not every state in the United States has a State Fossil.

State fossils tend to be quite dramatic. California has chosen the Pleistocene saber-toothed cat, Smilodon fatalis familiar from the La Brea Tar Pits, and Alaska has the Woolly mammoth, Mammuthus primigenius. Of course there are plenty of dinosaurs (Colorado's Stegosaurus, New Jersey's duck-bill Hadrosaurus foulki or Montana's Maiasaura peeblesorum) and even sets of dinosaur footprints (both Connecticut and Massachusetts). Nevada recalls its days as beachfront property with a Triassic Ichthyosaur, Shonisaurus popularis. Idaho has chosen an early horse, Equus simplicidens. Alabama and Mississippi have a pair of Eocene archaeocete whales, and Vermont has the most recent fossil, Charlotte, the Vermont Whale, a Beluga whale (Delphinapterus leucas) from an arm of the sea that extended into Pleistocene Vermont. Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Ohio are represented by trilobites. New York has the less-familiar Eurypterid, and Maine has gone out on a limb with an early vascular plant from the Devonian, Pertica quadrifaria.

Some of the State Fossils are a little generic, like Georgia's unspecified shark's tooth, but Illinois is represented by the unique and mysterious Tully Monster Tullimonstrum gregarium from the Carboniferous swamplands.

List of State Fossils

State Age Common name Binomial nomenclature Image Year & Citation
Alabama Eocene Whale Basilosaurus cetoides File:Basilosaurus cetoides.jpg 1984[1]
Alaska Pleistocene woolly mammoth Mammuthus primigenius
Arizona Triassic petrified wood Araucarioxylon arizonicum File:ArizonaPetrifiedWood.jpg
Arkansas
California Pleistocene saber-toothed cat Smilodon fatalis File:Smilodon fatalis, Pengo.jpg
Colorado Jurassic stegosaurus Stegosaurus stenops File:Stegosaurus Struct.jpg 1982
Connecticut Jurassic dinosaur tracks Eubrontes giganteus
Delaware Cretaceous belemnite Belemnitella americana
District of Columbia Capitalsaurus (state dinosaur)
Florida Eocene agatized coral (state stone) Cnidaria, Anthozoa
Georgia CretaceousMiocene shark tooth undetermined
Hawaii
Idaho Pliocene horse Equus simplicidens
Illinois Pennsylvanian Tully Monster Tullimonstrum gregarium
Indiana
Iowa
Kansas
Kentucky OrdovicianPennsylvanian brachiopod undetermined
File:Onniella.jpg
1986[2]
Louisiana Oligocene petrified palmwood undetermined
Maine Devonian plant Pertica quadrifaria
Maryland Miocene murex snail / gastropod Ecphora gardnerae gardnerae
Massachusetts Jurassic dinosaur tracks undetermined
Michigan Holocene mastodon Mammut americanum
Minnesota Pleistocene giant beaver Castoroides ohioensis (unofficial)
Mississippi Eocene whales Basilosaurus and Zygorhiza
Missouri Pennsylvanian crinoid Delocrinus missouriensis 1989
Montana Cretaceous duck-billed dinosaur Maiasaura peeblesorum
Nebraska Pleistocene woolly mammoth
Columbian mammoth
Imperial mammoth
Mammuthus primigenius
Mammuthus columbi
Mammuthus imperator
Nevada Triassic ichthyosaur Shonisaurus popularis
New Hampshire
New Jersey Cretaceous duck-billed dinosaur Hadrosaurus foulkii
New Mexico Triassic theropod dinosaur Coelophysis bauri
New York Silurian eurypterid Eurypterus remipes 1984
North Carolina
North Dakota Paleocene shipworm-bored petrified wood Teredo petrified wood
Ohio Ordovician trilobite Isotelus 1985
Oklahoma Jurassic Allosaurid dinosaur Saurophaganax maximus
Oregon Eocene Dawn redwood Metasequoia 2005
Pennsylvania Devonian trilobite Phacops rana File:Phacops-enrolled.jpg 1988
Rhode Island
South Carolina
South Dakota Cretaceous ceratopsid dinosaur Triceratops File:Triceratops2.png
Tennessee Cretaceous bivalve Pterotrigonia thoracica
Texas Pleurocoelus (state dinosaur)
Utah Jurassic carnosaurian dinosaur Allosaurus File:Allosaurus skull SDNHM.jpg 1988
Vermont Pleistocene beluga whale Delphinapterus leucas 1993
Virginia Caenozoic bivalve Chesapecten jeffersonius File:Chesapecten Jeffersonius Inside.jpg 1993
Washington Pleistocene Columbian mammoth Mammuthus columbi[3] File:ColumbianMammoth CollegeOfEasternUtah.jpg 1998
West Virginia Mississippian fossil coral (state gem) undetermined
Wisconsin OrdovicianSilurian trilobite Calymene celebra 1985
Wyoming Eocene fish Knightia File:Knightia.jpg 1987

Template:State insignia

See also

References

  1. "Official State of Alabama Fossil". Alabama Emblems, Symbols and Honors. Alabama Department of Archives & History. 2005-08-02. Retrieved 2007-03-19. Check date values in: |date= (help)
  2. "Kentucky State Symbols". Kentucky Department of Libraries and Archives. 2007-03-30. Retrieved 2007-07-02.
  3. http://www1.leg.wa.gov/Legislature/StateSymbols/ WA State Symbols

External links

de:Liste der Staatsfossilien der Bundesstaaten der Vereinigten Staaten

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