List of U.S. state fossils

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
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	Cretaceous–Miocene	shark tooth	undetermined
Hawaii
Idaho	Pliocene	horse	Equus simplicidens
Illinois	Pennsylvanian	Tully Monster	Tullimonstrum gregarium
Indiana
Iowa
Kansas
Kentucky	Ordovician–Pennsylvanian	brachiopod	undetermined	File:Onniella.jpg	1986
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	File:ColumbianMammoth CollegeOfEasternUtah.jpg	1998
West Virginia	Mississippian	fossil coral (state gem)	undetermined
Wisconsin	Ordovician–Silurian	trilobite	Calymene celebra		1985
Wyoming	Eocene	fish	Knightia	File:Knightia.jpg	1987

See also

• List of U.S. state dinosaurs
• List of U.S. state minerals, rocks, and gemstones
• Lists of U.S. state insignia

External links

• www.statefossils.com: a complete list of U.S. state fossils, with informative details