State fossil Guide, Meaning , Facts, Information and Description
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 Sabertooth 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 Hadrosaurus foulki, or Montana's duck-billed dinosaur 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 and Ohio are both represented by Trilobites. New York has a 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.
The following states have a State Fossil:
- Alabama - The Eocene whale Basilosaurus cetoides
- Alaska - The Pleistocene woolly mammoth Mammuthus primigenius
- Arizona - Triassic petrified wood
- California - The Pleistocene sabertooth cat Smilodon californicus
- Colorado - The Jurassic dinosaur Stegosaurus stenops
- Connecticut - Jurassic dinosaur tracks Eubrontes giganteus
- Delaware - The Cretaceous belemnite Belemnitella americana
- Florida - Eocene agate coral
- Georgia - Fossil shark tooth
- Idaho - The Pliocene horse Equus simplicidens
- Illinois - The Pennsylvanian "Tully Monster" Tullimonstrum gregarium
- Kentucky - Fossil brachiopod
- Louisiana - Oligocene petrified palm wood
- Maine - The Devonian plant Pertica quadrifaria
- Maryland - The Miocene gastropod Ecphora gardnerae gardnerae
- Massachusetts - Jurassic dinosaur tracks
- Michigan - Mastodon
- Mississippi - The Eocene whales Basilosaurus and Zygorhiza
- Missouri - The Pennsylvanian crinoid Delocrinus missouriensis 1989
- Montana - The Cretaceous duckbilled dinosaur Maiasaura peeblesorum
- North Dakota - Paleocene Teredo petrified wood
- Nebraska - Pleistocene mammoth
- Nevada - The Triassic ichthyosaur Shonisaurus popularis
- New Jersey - The Cretaceous duckbilled dinosaur Hadrosaurus foulkii
- New Mexico - The Triassic dinosaur Coelophysis bauri
- New York - The Silurian eurypterid Eurypterus remipes 1984
- Ohio - The Ordovician trilobite Isotelus 1985
- Oklahoma - The Jurassic dinosaur Saurophaganax maximus (year ?)
- Pennsylvania - The Devonian trilobite Phacops rana 1988
- South Dakota - The Cretaceous horned dinosaur Triceratops (year ?)
- Tennessee - The Cretaceous bivalve Pterotrigonia thoracica (year ?)
- Utah - The Jurassic dinosaur Allosaurus 1988
- Vermont - The Pleistocene whale Delphinapterus leucas 1993
- Virginia - The Caenozoic bivalve Chesapecten jeffersonius 1993
- Washington - The Pleistocene Columbian mammoth Mammuthus columbi 1998
- Wisconsin - The trilobite Calymene celebra 1985
- Wyoming - The Eocene fish Knightia 1987
See also
External link
- www.statefossils.com: a complete list of U.S. state fossils, with informative details
This is an Article on State fossil. Page Contains Information, Facts Details or Explanation Guide About State fossil