Paleontology in Kentucky

Paleontology in Kentucky refers to paleontological research occurring within or conducted by people from the U.S. state of Kentucky.

Kentucky's abundance of exposed sedimentary rock makes it an ideal source of fossils. The geologic column of Kentucky contains rocks deposited during the Ordovician, Silurian, Devonian, Mississippian and Pennsylvanian periods. The state was first home to a warm shallow sea home to an abundance and variety of brachiopods,^[1] cephalopods, crinoids, and trilobites. During the Devonian, a large reef system formed at what is now the Falls of the Ohio. Swamps covered Kentucky during the ensuing Carboniferous period. From the start of the Permian to the Pleistocene, there is a large gap in the geologic record, although the gap is interrupted by minor deposits of Cretaceous and Eocene rocks, which mainly preserve plant fossils. Ice Age Kentucky was home to short-faced bear, bison, elk, lions, mammoths, mastodons, and giant ground sloths, which can be found fossilized at Big Bone Lick. Brachiopods are the Kentucky state fossil.