It’s Not Just an Old Shell It’s Our State Fossil

Chesapecten jeffersonius is the official state fossil. This extinct scallop lived 4 million to 5 million years ago in what is now Virginia’s coastal plain.

In 1687, Martin Lister published the first known drawing of the seashell. While traveling near Yorktown in 1824, geologist John Finch gathered what became the first complete fossil collection from North America.

Fossils were so common in this area in the late 1800s that residents used them in building foundations and for dishes and water ladles.

Finch donated his collection to scientists at the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. These scientists had the task of describing and naming the fossils, all of which were new to science.

Scientist Thomas Say described the local species and named it Pecten jeffersonius to honor Thomas Jefferson. The scientists at the academy thought the specimens came from Maryland, where Finch also had done some collecting, and the Virginia fossil was mistaken for a Maryland species. The confusion over localities baffled paleontologists for more than 150 years.

In 1975, Lauck Ward of the U.S. Geological Survey conducted research that proved the specimens were from Virginia. His study revealed the fossils had come from a much younger layer than that found in Maryland. Ward renamed the fossil Chesapecten jeffersonius.

Five years later, after having joined the Virginia Museum of Natural History as curator of invertebrate paleontology, Ward visited the fossil-rich site along the James River across from Jamestown and collected more than 150 specimens of Chesapecten jeffersonius.

In 1992, Ward led efforts to have the Chesapecten jeffersonius designated as the state fossil. After passing the House of Delegates and state Senate, the bill was signed by Gov. L. Douglas Wilder.

Virginia Standards of Learning: K.1, K.2, K.6, K.9, 1.1, 2.1, 2.5, 2.7, 3.1, 4.1, 4.8, 5.1, 5.7, 6.1, LS.14, ES.10, BIO.2, BIO.7, BIO.8.