Chesapecten jeffersonius

Chesapecten jeffersonius
Temporal range: 5–4 Ma
Chesapecten jeffersonius (exterior of shell)
Chesapecten jeffersonius (interior of shell)
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Mollusca
Class: Bivalvia
Order: Pectinida
Family: Pectinidae
Genus: Chesapecten
Species:
C. jeffersonius
Binomial name
Chesapecten jeffersonius
(Say, 1824)

Chesapecten jeffersonius is the fossilized form of an extinct scallop, which lived in the early Pliocene epoch between four and five million years ago on Virginia's coastal plain. Chesapecten jeffersonius are commonly found in strata exposed along Coastal Plain cliffs along major rivers in southeastern Virginia and eastern North Carolina, and it is the index fossil for the Lower Yorktown Formation.

It is the state fossil of the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States.[1]

  1. ^ "Chesapecten jeffersonius Virginia State Fossil". statesymbolsusa.org/.