A distinctive feature of Chesapecten is that the radial ribs on its shell are crossed by much smaller, rough, concentric ribs, which follow the contours of the edges of the shell (are "conmarginal").

[4] Chesapecten was the first genus of North American fossil to be described and illustrated; a drawing of C. jeffersonius appeared in English naturalist Martin Lister's Historiae Conchyliorum, Liber III in 1687.

[1] The name Chesapecten comes from the Chesapeake Bay, where eroding cliffs and outcrops along the beaches regularly expose specimens.

It is very likely that Chesapecten could move suddenly to escape a predator by flapping its valves and using the resulting jet propulsion, in a manner similar to that of almost all living scallops.

[2] Different species dominated during different intervals of time: middlesexensis during the Miocene (Eastover Formation); Chesapecten jeffersonius during Early Pliocene (Lower Yorktown Formation, about 4.5 to 4.3 million years ago); and madisonius during Late Pliocene time (Upper Yorktown Formation, about 4 to 3 million years ago).