The Brachiopod is the official state fossil.
After lobbying by students and
teachers at a Louisville middle school, the Kentucky State
Legislature designated the brachiopod the state fossil in 1986;
aspecific species was not named. Though they resemble clams,
brachiopods are not related to them. There are hundreds of species
of brachiopod found in Paleozoic strata throughout Kentucky. They
lived attached to the sea bottom or some object on the sea bottom.
A few brachiopods survive in the deep oceans today.