Chesapecten jeffersonius is the fossilized form of an extinct scallop, which lived in the early Pliocene epoch between four and five million years ago on Virginia's coastal plain.

Chesapecten jeffersonius are commonly found in strata exposed along Coastal Plain cliffs along major rivers in southeastern Virginia and eastern North Carolina, and it is the index fossil for the Lower Yorktown Formation.

[1] In 1687, Martin Lister published a drawing of C. jeffersonius, making it the first North American fossil to be illustrated in scientific literature.

[2] In 1824, geologist John Finch gathered a large collection of mollusk fossils, including Chesapecten jeffersonius, from the vicinity of Yorktown, Virginia, and gave them to scientists at the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia (ANSP).

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