State Fossils
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Oregon Symbols
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Oregon State Fossil
Metasequoia
Adopted on May 4, 2005.
The legislature designated the Metasequoia, or dawn redwood, as the official state fossil for Oregon by resolution on May 4, 2005.
After an intense effort by Newport fossil buff Guy DiTorrice (who once presented each and every legislator with a Metasequoia fossil) and student MacKenzie Smith, with the help of State Rep. Alan Brown, the Oregon legislature passed House Joint Resolution #3 on May 4, 2005. Honoring a fossil tree seemed appropriate to Oregon residents because it recognizes their timber heritage.
The Metasequoia flourished from the Oligocene into the Miocene Epoch 34 to 5 million years ago and left its record embedded in rocks across the Oregon landscape. The designation is part of a long-term economic, research and educational effort to draw attention to Oregon's paleontologic and geologic resources. While long extinct in Oregon, paleontologists discovered living 100-foot Metasequoia trees in a remote area of China over 50 years ago and brought specimens back to the United States for propagation, thus ensuring that live Metasequoia trees can be found today.
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50 State Resource Guide
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