Wyoming: Knightia (state fossil)
Wyoming: Knightia (state fossil)
Wyoming is one of two states that have both a state fossil and a state dinosaur. The state fossil, the herring Knightia, may be only a small fish, but it is important because of both its beautiful preservation and the incredible abundance with which it occurs. It lived in several large lakes that existed near the junction of Wyoming, Utah, and Colorado during the Eocene Epoch, some 50 - 40 million years ago. At that time, the climate of Wyoming was warm and tropical, instead of the arid badlands of today.
The Eocene lake system consisted of three lakes, Uinta, Gosiute, and Fossil. Most of the best fish fossils come from Fossil Lake. They occur in mass die-offs, sometimes as many as several hundred fish densely packed in a single square yard of Green River rock! Because of this, Knightia is the most commonly collected vertebrate fossil in the world, and is frequently sold in souvenir shops across the state. It is thought that low oxygen conditions led to the death of large schools of fish, which settled to the lake bottom and were quickly buried and fossilized.
Missionaries began reporting fish fossils as early as the 1840s. Explorer James Hall and fur trapper Jack Robinson wrote of them in 1848, and the first published report appeared in 1856. Rich exposures of fish fossils were exposed during the building of the Union Pacific Railroad. Today, part of the area is preserved as Fossil Butte National Monument near Kemmerer.
Much of the credit for Knightia's designation as the state fossil goes to a teacher, Maudie Barker, and a school group from Anderson Elementary in Cheyenne. Working with state senator Liz Byrd, they lobbied the senate and spoke on radio shows in support of the state fossil. After an initial defeat, the bill was finally passed, and the governor signed it into law on February 18, 1987.
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