Paleontology in Rhode Island

During the Carboniferous period the state became a swampy environment where lush vegetation included trees more than 50 feet high.

Notable local fossil finds have included previously unknown kinds of insect and abundant ancient amphibian trackways.

Among the few known fossils from this general time period are trilobites preserved in metamorphic rocks deposited in that same Paleozoic sea.

During the Carboniferous period the same geologic forces that would later become responsible for dividing Pangaea triggered the formation of a rift basin in the northern part of the state.

[3] During the Permian the geologic forces that would later split Pangaea continued the process of rift basin formation in northern Rhode Island.

[2] During the Triassic and Jurassic local sediments were being eroded away from the state rather than deposited, so there are no rocks of this age in which fossils could have been preserved within Rhode Island's boundaries.

[4] Like during the Triassic and Jurassic, Rhode Island's sediments were being eroded away rather than deposited during the ensuing Paleogene and Neogene periods of the Cenozoic era, leaving another gap in the state's geologic and fossil record.