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.

State Fossils

Most US states have made a state fossil designation, in many cases during the 1980s. It is common to designate one species in which fossilization has occurred, rather than a single specimen, or a category of fossils not limited to a single species.

Some states that lack a "state fossil" have nevertheless singled out a fossil for formal designation such as a state dinosaur, rock, gem or stone.

fossil (fos‧sil)
n.
1. A remnant or trace of an organism of a past geologic age, such as a skeleton or leaf imprint, embedded and preserved in the earth's crust.
2. One, such as a rigid theory, that is outdated or antiquated.

adj.
1. Characteristic of or having the nature of a fossil.
2. Being or similar to a fossil.
3. Belonging to the past; antiquated.

[From Latin fossilis, dug up, from fossus, past participle of fodere, to dig.]

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