• The Valley and Ridge contains fossils from the Cambrian to the Mississippian. Abundant invertebrates and some vertebrates can be found. Excellent Mississippian plant fossils are present.
Left: brachiopods (photograph by Parvinder Sethi); right: plant fossils (photograph by Phyllis Newbill)
Common Valley and Ridge fossils include brachiopods, shown above left, and plant fossils, shown above right. These brachiopods were found in Roanoke County. These plant fossils were found in Pulaski County.
• The Appalachian Plateaus contain late Paleozoic fossils. This area is famous for plant fossils in its coal beds. In the photographs below, scale trees (left) and ferns (right) are common fossils in the Appalachian Plateaus of southwestern Virginia. These plants were common in the coal swamps that existed in this area in the late Paleozoic.
Left: scale tree (photograph by Parvinder Sethi; right: fern (photograph by Stan Johnson)