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Information about State Fossil

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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
AlabamaEoceneWhaleBasilosaurus cetoides1984[1]
AlaskaPleistocenewoolly mammothMammuthus primigenius
ArizonaTriassicpetrified woodAraucarioxylon arizonicum
Arkansas
CaliforniaPleistocenesaber-toothed catSmilodon fatalis
ColoradoJurassicstegosaurusStegosaurus stenops1982
ConnecticutJurassicdinosaur tracksEubrontes giganteus
DelawareCretaceousbelemniteBelemnitella americana
District of ColumbiaCapitalsaurus (state dinosaur)
FloridaEoceneagatized coral (state stone)Cnidaria, Anthozoa
GeorgiaCretaceous–Mioceneshark toothundetermined
Hawaii
IdahoPliocenehorseEquus simplicidens
IllinoisPennsylvanianTully MonsterTullimonstrum gregarium
Indiana
Iowa
Kansas
KentuckyOrdovician–Pennsylvanianbrachiopodundetermined1986[2]
LouisianaOligocenepetrified palmwoodundetermined
MaineDevonianplantPertica quadrifaria
MarylandMiocenemurex snail / gastropodEcphora gardnerae gardnerae
MassachusettsJurassicdinosaur tracksundetermined
MichiganHolocenemastodonMammut americanum
MinnesotaPleistocenegiant beaverCastoroides ohioensis (unofficial)
MississippiEocenewhalesBasilosaurus and Zygorhiza
MissouriPennsylvaniancrinoidDelocrinus missouriensis1989
MontanaCretaceousduck-billed dinosaurMaiasaura peeblesorum
NebraskaPleistocenewoolly mammoth
Columbian mammoth
Imperial mammoth		Mammuthus primigenius
Mammuthus columbi
Mammuthus imperator
NevadaTriassicichthyosaurShonisaurus popularis
New Hampshire
New JerseyCretaceousduck-billed dinosaurHadrosaurus foulkii
New MexicoTriassictheropod dinosaurCoelophysis bauri
New YorkSilurianeurypteridEurypterus remipes1984
North Carolina
North DakotaPaleoceneshipworm-bored petrified woodTeredo petrified wood
OhioOrdoviciantrilobiteIsotelus1985
OklahomaJurassicAllosaurid dinosaurSaurophaganax maximus
OregonEoceneDawn redwoodMetasequoia2005
PennsylvaniaDevoniantrilobitePhacops rana1988
Rhode Island
South Carolina
South DakotaCretaceousceratopsid dinosaurTriceratops
TennesseeCretaceousbivalvePterotrigonia thoracica
TexasPleurocoelus (state dinosaur)
UtahJurassiccarnosaurian dinosaurAllosaurus1988
VermontPleistocenebeluga whaleDelphinapterus leucas1993
VirginiaCaenozoicbivalveChesapecten jeffersonius1993
WashingtonPleistoceneColumbian mammothMammuthus columbi[3]1998
West VirginiaMississippianfossil coral (state gem)undetermined
WisconsinOrdovician–SiluriantrilobiteCalymene celebra1985
WyomingEocenefishKnightia1987
 •  • [ e]
U.S. state insignias
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See also

References

1. ^ Official State of Alabama Fossil. Alabama Emblems, Symbols and Honors. Alabama Department of Archives & History (2005-08-02). Retrieved on 2007-03-19.
2. ^ Kentucky State Symbols. Kentucky Department of Libraries and Archives (2007-03-30). Retrieved on 2007-07-02.
3. ^ [1] WA State Symbols

External links

United States of America

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This is a list of U.S. state birds as designated by each state's legislature. The selection of state birds began in 1927, when the legislatures for Alabama, Florida, Maine, Missouri, Oregon, Texas and Wyoming selected their state birds.
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This is a list of U.S. state flowers:

State Image Common name Binomial nomenclature Year & Citation
Alabama
Camellia
(state flower) Camellia japonica L.
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For other uses of the term, see Fossil (disambiguation)


FOSSIL is a standard for allowing serial communication for telecommunications programs under the DOS operating system.
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Pleistocene epoch (IPA: /'plaɪstəsi:n/) on the geologic timescale is the period from 1,808,000 to 11,550 years BP. The Pleistocene epoch had been intended to cover the world's recent period of repeated glaciations.
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saber-toothed cat and saber-toothed tiger describe numerous species, mainly in the families Felidae (subfamily Machairodontinae), Hyaenodontidae, and Nimravidae, but also including two marsupial families, that lived during various parts of the Cenozoic and evolved their
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S. fatalis

Binomial name
Smilodon fatalis
(Leidy, 1869)

Smilodon fatalis ("the deadly knife-tooth") is possibly the best-known of the machairodontine saber-toothed cats.
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La Brea Tar Pits (or Rancho La Brea Tar Pits) are a famous cluster of tar pits located in Hancock Park in the urban heart of Los Angeles, California, USA. Asphalt (colloquially termed tar, which in spanish is termed brea
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Alaska

Flag of Alaska Seal
Nickname(s): The Last Frontier
Motto(s): "North to the Future"

Official language(s) None[1]
Spoken language(s) English 85.7%,
Native North American 5.
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Mammuthus
Brookes, 1828

Species
  • Mammuthus africanavus African mammoth
  • Mammuthus columbi Columbian mammoth
  • Mammuthus exilis Pygmy mammoth
  • Mammuthus imperator Imperial mammoth

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Dinosauria *
Owen, 1842

Orders & Suborders
  • Ornithischia
  • Cerapoda
  • Thyreophora
  • Saurischia

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State of Colorado

Flag of Colorado Seal
Nickname(s): The Centennial State
Motto(s): Nil sine numine

Official language(s) English

Capital Denver
Largest city Denver

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Stegosaurus
Marsh, 1877

Species
  • S. armatus Marsh, 1877 (type)
  • S. stenops Marsh, 1887
  • S. longispinus Gilmore, 1914


Stegosaurus (IPA:
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State of New Jersey

Flag of New Jersey Seal
Nickname(s): Garden State[1]
Motto(s): Liberty and prosperity

Official language(s) English de facto

Capital Trenton

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Hadrosauridae
Cope, 1869

Subfamilies
  • Hadrosaurinae Cope, 1869
  • Lambeosaurinae Parks, 1923
Synonyms
  • Trachodontidae Lydekker, 1888
  • Saurolophidae Brown, 1914
  • Lambeosauridae Parks, 1923 vide Horner, 1990

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Hadrosaurus
Leidy, 1858

Species

H. foulkii Leidy, 1858 (type)
Hadrosaurus (Greek: ἁδρος, hadros + σαυρος, sauros = sturdy lizard
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State of Montana

Flag of Montana Seal
Nickname(s): Treasure State, Big Sky Country
Motto(s): Oro y plata (Gold and silver)

Official language(s) English

Capital Helena
Largest city
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Maiasaura

Binomial name
Maiasaura peeblesorum
Horner & Makela, 1979

Maiasaura (meaning "good mother lizard") is a large duck-billed dinosaur genus that lived in the area currently covered
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State of Nevada

Flag of Nevada Seal
''Nickname(s): Silver State (official), Sagebrush State,
Battle Born State''
Motto(s): All For Our Country

Official language(s) English

Capital Carson City

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Ichthyosauria
Blainville, 1835

Families
  • Ichthyosauridae
  • Leptonectidae
  • Mixosauridae
  • Ophthalmosauridae
  • Shastasauridae
  • Stenopterygiidae
  • Teretocnemidae
Ichthyosaurs (Greek for 'fish lizard' -
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State of Idaho

Flag of Idaho Seal
Nickname(s): Gem State, Spud State
Motto(s): Esto perpetua

Official language(s) English [1]

Capital Boise
Largest city Boise

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H.O.R.S.E. is a form of poker commonly played at the high stakes tables of casinos. It consists of rounds of play cycling among:
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The Eocene epoch (55.8 ± 0.2 - 33.9 ± 0.1 Ma) is a major division of the geologic timescale and the second epoch of the Palaeogene period in the Cenozoic era. The Eocene spans the time from the end of the Paleocene epoch to the beginning of the Oligocene epoch.
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Delphinapterus

Species: D. leucas

Binomial name
Delphinapterus leucas
(Pallas, 1776)

Beluga range

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whale can refer to all cetaceans, to just the larger ones, or only to members of particular families within the order Cetacea. The last definition is the one followed here. Whales are those cetaceans which are neither dolphins (i.e.
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An arm of the sea (or sea arm) may refer to a sea loch or:
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Nickname(s): Badger State, America's Dairyland
Motto(s): Forward

Official language(s) None

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