Miocene Fossils

By the time of the Miocene (23 to 5 million years ago) plants and animals begin to look familiar. There are whales the oceans, horses on the plains, and flowers in the forest. Many species found as fossil still survive.

While going up the Coast Highway from California to Washington state, I collected Miocene marine fossils on a beach in Oregon.

While a son was going to school in Moscow, Idaho, he took me to the Clarkia Lake beds for leaves.

The Calvert, Choptank, and St. Marys Formations exposed in Calvert Cliffs along the west shore of the Chespeake Bay have yielded marine and some terrestrial fossils since the 1700s. The fossils include whales and other marine mammals, sharks, mollusks, and some terrestrial animals.

Click on an image to see the fossils.