Q: What is the state fossil of Massachusetts?
A: Dinosaur tracks
The Connecticut River Valley is world-famous for an abundance of the official state fossil of Massachusetts. In 1802, a young South Hadley farmer by the name of Pliny Moody was plowing his field and happened to turn over a rock, which had fossil tracks embedded in it. At the time he had no idea what he found, but in 1833, Professor Hitchcock of Amherst College claimed an ancient bird made them. Years after, Pliny’s discovery was determined to be the first tracks found in North America left by dinosaurs!
