Kentucky: brachiopod (state fossil)
Kentucky: brachiopod (state fossil)
Kentucky has designated the generic "brachiopod" as its state fossil, declining to name a specific genus or species. With the ubiquity of brachiopod species found in the Paleozoic sediments of the state, it would be difficult to decide which was the most common or important.
Kentucky was covered by shallow seas during much of the Paleozoic Era, between 550 and 250 million years ago. Some of the best-preserved brachiopods come from Devonian sediments, especially those exposed at the Falls of the Ohio.
Brachiopods superficially resemble clams, but are not related to them. The upper and lower shells of a brachiopod are different from each other but both bilaterally symmetrical, whereas those of a clam are both the same (the plane of symmetry passes between the shells of a clam, through them in a brachiopod). Additionally, the soft structures of the two animals are totally different. This is known because a few brachiopods survive in the deep oceans today, although their numbers and diversity were decimated in the great extinction at the end of the Paleozoic.
After lobbying by students and teachers at a Louisville middle school, the Kentucky State Legislature designated the brachiopod the state fossil on July 15, 1986 with the passage of Act 488, Section 1.
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