Most of Kentucky s rocks and fossils are very ancient, dating back more than 230 million years to the Paleozoic Era.
Most Kentucky fossils are of marine invertebrates.
In coal country, you may find both marine invertebrates and fossils of land plants. Like many states, Kentucky also hosts the remains of creatures that lived during the Pleistocene Epoch, or Ice Age. These include mammoths, mastodons, ground sloths, bears, tapirs, and giant beavers. Ice Age fossils from Kentucky played an important part in early paleontology. Mastodon fossils discovered along the Ohio River near Louisville in 1739 were the first fossils from the New World to be studied by French naturalists.