Virginia Symbols, Fossil: Scallop

Adopted in 1993.

This fossil was the first discovered in North America. It was named for Thomas Jefferson because of his interest in natural history. The fossil also celebrates the Chesapeake Bay, the largest estuary in the world

It has been reported that Native Americans used Chesapecten shells as bowls and scraping tools, and that this was noticed by the first Jamestown settlers. Chesapecten bears the distinction of being the first fossil from North America to be illustrated in a scientific publication, Martin Lister's 1687 Historiae Conchyliorum; however, it was not given a scientific name until 1824 however Chesapecten jeffersonius (Say), 1824, was first described in 1694 by Martin Lister. In 1687, it became the first fossil to be described from North America.

The oyster shell isn't Virginia's only official bivalve. The other is Chesapecten jeffersonius, among the oldest and newest of Virginia's symbols.

First, what's a bivalve? Just as a bicycle has two wheels or a biplane two wings, so does a bivalve have two valves, or shells. Bivalves include oysters, clams, and scallops. Chesapecen jeffersonius is a scallop.

Bivalves are included among the fossils buried in the rocks of the Appalachians. These are evidence of animals that lived during the Paleozoic Era, long before dinosaurs evolved. They were fossilized even before they were carried skyward by the rising Appalachian Mountains.

This mollusc lived in the shallow waters of the continental shelf during the Late Miocene and Early Pliocene Epochs, some 4 - 5 million years , which began with the extinction of the dinosaurs. Actually, there were several species of scallops whose scientific names begin with Chesapecten, represented by fossils stretching from New Jersey south into Florida. (They're especially common in the Chesapeake Bay region Virginia and Maryland.) They lived quite recently, perhaps originating little more than five million years ago during the Miocene Epoch of the Cenozoic. Living along the continental shelf at shallow to moderate depths, their neighbors included sea turtles and crocodiles, with an occasional mastodon and rhinoceros probably walking along the beach.

Virginia's official Chesapecten died out in Virginia about four million years ago. The last of the Chesapecten clan became extinctabout three million years ago, during the Pliocene Epoch, likely falling victim to a cooler climate. Their fossils really chilled during the following Pleistocene Epoch (the “Ice Age”).

Governor Wilder signed a bill naming Chesapecten Jeffersonius Virginia's official state fossil. This fossil scallop from Virginia's coastal plain is the first fossil figured and described from the New World.

In 1687, Martin Lister published the first known drawing of the scallop. While traveling near Yorktown in 1824, geologist John Finch gathered what was to become the first comprehensive collection of fossils from North America. Fossils were so common in this area in the late 1800s that local inhabitants used them in building foundations and as dishes and water ladles.

After collecting a large variety of mollusks specimens, Finch bestowed his collection on the prominent 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. One scientist, Thomas Say, described the species and named it Pecten jeffersonius to honor Thomas Jefferson. For unexplained reasons, the scientists at ANSP believed the specimens had been found along the St. Marys River in Maryland, where Finch had also done some collecting.

In 1975, Dr. Lauck Ward, then employed by the United States Geological Survey, conducted research that proved the specimens had come from Virginia, and renamed the fossil Chesapecten jeffersonius. Ward's study revealed the named fossils had originated from a much younger geological unit than that exposed on the St. Marys River. The confusion over localities had confounded paleontological literature for more than 150 years and caused the Virginia Pliocene fossil names to be wrongfully applied to the Maryland Miocene fossil species.

Ward approached the VMNH staff and board and suggested that the historically significant shell deserved the honor of becoming Virginia's official fossil. Five years later, after having joined VMNH as Curator in Invertebrate Paleontology, Ward visited the fossil-rich deposits along the James River across from Jamestown and collected over 150 specimens of Chesapecten jeffersonius. The specimens were mounted in oak frames and distributed to members of the Virginia General Assembly in March 1992. That summer, Ward's suggestion was reinforced when members of the General Assembly received more Chesapecten jeffersonius samples. These had been collected by a group of honor students led by Dr. Gerald Johnson at the College of William & Mary. It was no wonder that, when Chesapecten jeffersonius was suggested as a state fossil, most General Assembly members were already quite familiar with the unique fossil. The fossil bill successfully passed both the House and Senate.