The Friends of Taylorsville Lake State Park (FTLSP) held a Fossil Day at the Army Corps of Engineers Welcome Center area on Overlook Road last week.
Many local residents interested in knowing more about what kinds of critters swam in the sea that covered Kentucky, including Spencer County, hundreds of millions of years ago, attended the event.
A local resident took some fossils that she found on her property many years ago, but wasn’t sure what they were. She was able to learn about how old they were, and what type.
The FTLSP, U.S. Army Corp of Engineers (USACE), and representatives from the Falls of the Ohio State Park taught those in attendance more about the history of fossils in the County, with numerous hands-on activities for guests of all ages.
The types of fossils found in Spencer County are from the Ordovician Period, which was during the Paleozoic Era, and can be over 450 million years old. That makes these fossils really old when you consider that dinosaurs lived during the Mesozoic Era which was about 250 to 66 million years ago, and even primitive man (Homo sapiens) first appeared only about 300,000 years ago.
Spencer County has long been known as a great place to collect fossils. As noted by Alan Goldstein, Naturalist at the Falls of the Ohio State Park, fossil collectors, or paleontologists, come here from around the country as, “Spencer County has a national reputation as being fossil friendly, as well as a safe place to collect fossils along Highway 155 and 44 due to the numerous rock cuts with wide shoulders along the roadways”.
Goldstein noted that he has been bringing teachers here to search for fossils for over 30 years.