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Category: Fossils
Posted on: July 3, 2006 11:07 AM, by PZ Myers
Lindsay makes a factual error: Minnesota does not have a state fossil. We had a bill introduced almost 20 years ago to make Castoroides ohioensis, a 6-foot long, 250 pound giant beaver, our state fossil…but some people objected to the fact that it's named after Ohio, and I suspect there might have been some concern about the beaver jokes.
We do have a list of potential nominees. I'm rooting for Endoceras proteiforme, myself—a giant nautiloid would be perfect!
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Comments
Posted by: Bronze Dog
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July 3, 2006 11:21 AM
Wait, Texas doesn't have a state fossil? Why don't people tell me these things? I thought for sure we had some Republican filling the role.
Posted by: PZ Myers
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July 3, 2006 11:23 AM
Nah, I think if it is rank and putrefying, it doesn't count as a fossil. I think Texas has state zombies.
Posted by: spork_incident
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July 3, 2006 11:39 AM
a giant nautiloid would be perfect!
Wouldn't that be Norm Coleman?
(Sorry, that was too easy.)
.
Posted by: PZ Myers
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July 3, 2006 11:43 AM
Boo. Coleman has none of the endearing qualities of a mollusc. Slugs everywhere recoil in revulsion at the thought of that degree of propinquity.
Posted by: quork
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July 3, 2006 11:58 AM
But how else do you explain Garrison Keillor?Posted by: Bronze Dog
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July 3, 2006 12:05 PM
It's a good thing most won't complain if you wield a shotgun.Posted by: AJ Milne
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July 3, 2006 12:08 PM
...I suspect there might have been some concern about the beaver jokes...
It's never bothered us in Canada.
(Bites tongue to keep from repeating a few.)
Posted by: Laurel
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July 3, 2006 12:13 PM
Oregon may be on the map has having a state fossil, but I'm not sure it really counts - we went with a tree.
Posted by: Kristine
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July 3, 2006 12:14 PM
I want the trilobite, myself. Trilobites rule. (Unless Pennsylvania wants to make a big deal about them declining during the Pennsylvanian period.)
Posted by: ivyprivy
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July 3, 2006 12:23 PM
You'll probably enjoy this piece:Last of the Titans: Big Game Trilobite Hunting
Posted by: Markita Lynda: Healthcare is a damn right
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July 3, 2006 12:31 PM
In the meantime, you could name governor Tim Pawlenty as honorary state fossil.
Posted by: Mouth of the Yellow River
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July 3, 2006 1:59 PM
As soon as Texas names its state fossil, you can be sure every Texan worth her salt will know it, just like
Texas' own Bud commercial says with the state reptile (The Horny Toad) as an example. How about a contest for a State Bud commercial?
And in agreement with Coturnix, Quetzalcoatlus is perfect, politically correct, a tribute to early Texas (Native American) creationist theory.
MOTYR
PS. And concerning MN and TX in common, they got Jesse and Kinky (now on the ballot for gov. of TX), Jesse is actually campaigning for Kinky I heard.
Posted by: coturnix
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July 3, 2006 2:26 PM
That was Sean Folley's suggestion. I was thinking about NC.(for those confused - these are comments over on Majikthise)
Posted by: suezboo
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July 3, 2006 3:07 PM
Ignoramus checking in.
When I went to look at the pic of your Chosen Fossil, I found out it was a cephalopod.Surprise! But, now I am wondering : Here in SAfrica, we get Paper Nautilus shells (beautiful things) washing up on the beach.Was he also a cephalopod? Or just your average mollusc?
Posted by: quork
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July 3, 2006 3:15 PM
Yes, unless he was a she, in which case she was a nautilus.Posted by: John Emerson
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July 3, 2006 3:48 PM
Minnesota has the wood tick down as the state insect and the turtle down as the state amphibian, so there's quite a lot of work to be done here.
Posted by: Xanthir
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July 3, 2006 4:52 PM
Hmm. I was at the Houston Museum of Natural Science not too long ago (it had been a few years, and it was our first anniversary. Who ever said nerds don't know how to celebrate?). I could have sworn that our state fossil is fossilized palm tree.
My memory could, of course, be faulty.
Posted by: 01Jack
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July 3, 2006 6:53 PM
Here in Illinois the state fossil is Tully Monster, Tullimonstrum gregarium, which is pretty cool.
I belive the nomination was voted on by the state's schoolkids.
BTW, a full list is here.
Posted by: 01Jack
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July 3, 2006 6:58 PM
statefossils.com
Posted by: wilco
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July 4, 2006 2:27 AM
Actually, they now prefer to be called vagina squirrels.
Posted by: Carlie
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July 4, 2006 6:54 AM
New York's is the eurypterid, which is way cool, and seems to have been used as a model for the alien that attached to B'Elanna Torres' nervous system in season 5 of Voyager.
Posted by: Keith Douglas
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July 4, 2006 1:36 PM
AJ Milne: You no doubt know that our friends to the south are much more squeamish about sex ... Heck, there's a broadcast, off-the-air TV network in Quebec that periodically broadcasts softcore porn.
As for the actual subject of this thread: so other states have state fossils?