List of U.S. state fossils facts for kids
Most American states have made a state fossil designation, in many cases during the 1980s. It is common to designate one species in which fossilization has occurred, rather than a single specimen, or a category of fossils not limited to a single species.
Some states that lack an explicit state fossil have nevertheless singled out a fossil for formal designation as a state dinosaur, rock, gem or stone.
Table of state fossils
State federal district or territory |
Age | Common name | Binomial name |
Image | Year adopted |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Alabama | Eocene | Basilosaurus whale | Basilosaurus cetoides | 1984 | |
Alaska | Pleistocene | Woolly mammoth | Mammuthus primigenius | 1986 | |
Arizona | Triassic | Petrified wood | Araucarioxylon arizonicum | 1988 | |
California | Pleistocene | Saber-toothed cat | Smilodon fatalis | 1974 | |
Colorado | Jurassic | Stegosaurus | Stegosaurus armatus | 1982 | |
Connecticut | Jurassic | Dinosaur tracks | Eubrontes giganteus | 1991 | |
Delaware | Cretaceous | Belemnite | Belemnitella americana | 1996 | |
District of Columbia | Cretaceous | "Capitalsaurus" (state dinosaur) |
nomen nudum only | 1998 | |
Florida | Eocene | Agatized coral (state stone) |
Cnidaria, Anthozoa | 1979 | |
Georgia | Cretaceous– Miocene |
Shark tooth | undetermined | 1976 | |
Idaho | Pliocene | Hagerman horse | Equus simplicidens | ||
Illinois | Pennsylvanian | Tully monster | Tullimonstrum gregarium | 1989 | |
Indiana | Holocene | American mastodon | Mammut americanum | 2022 | |
Kansas | Cretaceous | Pteranodon (state flying fossil) |
Pteranodon longiceps | 2014 | |
Cretaceous | Tylosaurus (state marine fossil) |
Tylosaurus kansasensis | 2014 | ||
Kentucky | Ordovician– Pennsylvanian |
Brachiopod | undetermined | 1986 | |
Louisiana | Oligocene | Petrified palmwood | Palmoxylon | 1976 | |
Maine | Devonian | Pertica plant | Pertica quadrifaria | 1976 | |
Maryland | Miocene | Ecphora gardnerae shell |
Ecphora gardnerae gardnerae |
1984 (name revised, 1994) | |
Massachusetts | Jurassic | Dinosaur tracks | Eubrontes giganteus | ||
Michigan | Holocene | American mastodon | Mammut americanum | 2002 | |
Mississippi | Eocene | "Prehistoric whale" | Zygorhiza kochii | 1981 | |
Missouri | Pennsylvanian | Sea lily | 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 | 1977 (designated) 1988 (amended) | |
New Mexico | Triassic | Coelophysis | Coelophysis bauri | 1981 | |
New York | Silurian | Sea scorpion | Eurypterus remipes | 1984 | |
North Carolina | Miocene- Pliocene | Shark tooth | Otodus megalodon | 2013 | |
North Dakota | Paleocene | Shipworm-bored petrified wood |
Teredo petrified wood | ||
Ohio | Ordovician | Trilobite | Isotelus maximus (Fossil invertebrate) | 1985 | |
Devonian | Dunkleosteus | Dunkleosteus terrelli (Fossil Fish) | 2021 | ||
Oklahoma | Jurassic | Saurophaganax | Saurophaganax maximus | 2000 | |
Oregon | Eocene | Dawn redwood | Metasequoia | 2005 | |
Pennsylvania | Devonian | Trilobite | Phacops rana | 1988 | |
South Carolina | Pleistocene | Columbian mammoth | Mammuthus columbi | 2014 | |
South Dakota | Cretaceous | Triceratops | Triceratops horridus | ||
Tennessee | Cretaceous | Bivalve | Pterotrigonia thoracica | ||
Utah | Jurassic | Allosaurus | Allosaurus fragilis | 1988 | |
Vermont | Pleistocene | Beluga whale (redesignated as state marine fossil in 2014) | Delphinapterus leucas | 1993 | |
Pleistocene | Woolly mammoth tooth and tusk (state terrestrial fossil) |
Mammuthus primigenius | 2014 | ||
Virginia | Cenozoic | scallop | Chesapecten jeffersonius | 1993 | |
Washington | Pleistocene | Columbian mammoth | Mammuthus columbi | 1998 | |
West Virginia | Late Pleistocene | Jefferson's ground sloth | Megalonyx jeffersonii | 2008 | |
Wisconsin | Silurian | Trilobite | Calymene celebra | 1985 | |
Wyoming | Eocene | Knightia | Knightia spp. | 1987 |
States lacking a state fossil
- Arkansas
- Hawaii
- Minnesota
- The giant beaver was proposed in 2022.
- Iowa
- The crinoid was proposed in 2018.
- New Jersey
- New Hampshire
- The American mastodon (Mammut americanum) was considered in 2015.
- Rhode Island
- Texas
- The state dinosaur of Texas is Sauroposeidon proteles.
See also
- List of U.S. state dinosaurs
- List of U.S. state minerals, rocks, and gemstones
- Lists of U.S. state insignia
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