belemnite

Fossil Sites In Delaware

Delaware offers a few sites for fossil collectors, and the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal and the Pollack Farm are the best. Other locations throughout the state also offer good hunting grounds for fossil collectors. Just south of Dagsboro, where Route 113 crosses Pepper Creek, the collector can find young (less than 2 million year old) marine fossils from the Pleistocene Epoch. At the state sand and gravel pit just south of Middletown on Route 896, plant impressions from the Pleistocene may be found.

OFR21 A Guide to Fossil Sharks, Skates, and Rays from the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal Area, Delaware

In recent years there has been a renewed interest by both amateur and professional paleontologists in the rich upper Cretaceous exposures along the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal, Delaware (Fig. 1). Large quantities of fossil material, mostly clams, oysters, and snails have been collected as a result of this activity. Recent dredging (1978, 1981) by the United States Army Corps of Engineers has helped expose a rich vertebrate fossil assemblage. It includes representatives from the classes Reptilia, Osteichthyes, and Chondrichthyes.

Delaware State Fossil - The Belemnite

On July 2, 1996, Belemnitella americana was named as the official fossil of Delaware. The Martin Luther King, Jr. Elementary School (Wilmington) third grade Quest students of Kathy Tidball suggested honoring the ancient and noble belemnite as our State fossil.(Delaware Code Title 29 § 314)

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