Vermont: Delphinapterus leucas (state fossil)
Vermont: Delphinapterus leucas (state fossil)
Vermont's state fossil, the beluga whale Delphinapterus leucas, has the unusual distinction of being the only state fossil belonging to a genus and species that is still living today! It hails from the last days of the Pleistocene Epoch, around 12,500 years ago, when the great glaciers were retreating and the weight of the ice had depressed portions of the land below sea level. As the glaciers melted, for around 2500 years an arm of the Atlantic Ocean known as the Champlain Sea extended into what is now New York and Vermont. It is in sediments laid down in this seaway that fossils of Delphinapterus leucas are found.
Since Delphinapterus still exists today -- restricted to a marine arctic microenvironment in the St. Lawrence estuary of Canada -- scientists know far more about it than they do about other state fossils. These whales are white as adults, sing to each other so loudly that they are nicknamed "sea canaries," and use echolocation to hunt. The name Delphinapterus means "dolphin without a wing," a reference to the lack of a dorsal fin.
The first bones of Delphinapterus were unearthed in 1849 by workmen constructing the first railroad between Rutland and Burlington. Because the bones were found near the small town of Charlotte, the specimen came to be known as the "Charlotte whale." For some time, there was disagreement about whether the whale was the same species as the living beluga, or a different, extinct species. It was finally determined that the species were equivalent, and that the name Delphinapterus leucas should apply to both.
Nearly 125 years after the discovery of the Charlotte whale, in 1993, the Vermont State Legislature paid homage to the specimen by designating Delphinapterus leucas the state fossil, with the passage of Act No. 66.
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