Marine fossils are one of the easiest types to find in Virginia.
Over the years, paleontologists and hobbyists alike have discovered many fossils in Virginia, including marine fossils from the Paleozoic period, dinosaur footprints, insect and fish fossils from the Mesozoic and Cenozoic period, and Ice Age mammal and marine fossils from the Pleistocene Epoch. A number of sites where fossils can be found in Virginia are open to the public, including Chippokes State Park in Surry County, Westmoreland State Park in Westmoreland County, and the area around Indian Fields Creek in York County.
The State Fossil
Virgina's state fossil is Chesapecten jeffersonius, a bivalve scallop named after the Chesapeake Bay, and after the third president of the United States, Thomas Jefferson, who had a deep interest in paleontology. This fossil is one of the more commonly found fossils in the area, and can often be discovered near streams and rivers in southeastern Virginia. The extinct Chesapecten jeffersonius lived during the Pliocene period, which was approximately 4.5 million years ago. An intact Chesapecten jeffersonius fossil will have nine to twelve ribs on its shell.
Other Sea and Freshwater Fossils
Collectors searching along southeastern Virginia streams and rivers can often find teeth and vertebrae of sharks and whales, many different type of shells, including clams and oysters, and assorted other finds, such as crocodile bony plates or barnacle fossils.
Maine and freshwater fossils have also been found in other areas of Virginia as well. A particularly large fossil deposit was discovered in a quarry in Fredericksburg, Virginia, which is located one hour north of Richmond. By 2011, thousands of fossils had been unearthed at this site, even though only a small portion had been excavated.
Fossils of freshwater fish from the Triassic period have been found at sites in the Piedmont Region of Virginia.
Ice Age Mammals
There are reports from as far back as the late 1700s of Ice Age mammal fossils being found in Virginia, especially near Saltville, which is located in southwestern Virginia. During the Pleistocene Epoch, or Ice Age, the salt that is found naturally in this area, which gives the town its name, attracted many large mammals, such as caribou, mastodons, woolly mammoths, horses and musk ox. Their remains can still be found in the area.
Dinosaur Footprints
Although dinosaur bone fossils have not been found in Virginia, the creatures did leave their fossilized footprints behind. Over 2,400 tracks of a three-toed dinosaur were found in Culpepper, Virginia, which is about an hour north of Richmond. Dinosaur tracks have also been found in Martinsville's Solite Quarry in southern Virginia. The quarry is famous for being the only site in the world where many complete insect fossils from the Triassic Period have been found .
In 1993, a man in Centreville, which is located in Northern Virginia, discovered the fossilized footprint of an ancestor to today's crocodile. The fossil was estimated to be about 240 million years old.
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