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These Mountains contain metamorphic rocks like this Gneiss. These formed under very high pressures and temperatures as North America and Europe collided 320 million years ago.

This picture was taken from the top of Bald Knob in Rocky Mount, Va. You can see Grassy Hill in the distance. These are ancient underwater volcano deposits as shown by the pore rich basalt. These volcanoes formed as North and South America split apart and represent the breaking apart of Rodinia, a supercontinent.

450 million years ago, a volcanic island arc existed off North America similar to Japan off Asia Today. This igneous granite found in Martinsville is evidence of this.

These sedimentary rocks found near Roanoke are 280 million years old. The folding occurred as North America and Africa collided to form the supercontinent Pangea, which occurred 230 million years ago after the rocks were deposited.

This basalt contains the green mineral Olivine, which indicates this rock when it was molten came from the mantle. Olivine only forms in the mantle of the Earth.

Glacial deposits called Tills in Africa indicate that 450 million years ago, sea level was lower and the continental shelves were drained, but other factors contributed to the Late Ordovician extinction.

Graptolites look like jellyfish but are actually related to early chordates, Some of these went extinct 450 million years ago. As fossils they look like pencil marks on the rock.

Cephalopods were early squid like animals that were carnivores. There were other predators in the seas 450 million years ago, making life difficult back then.

These volcanic ash beds can be found in rocks of Ordovician age and indicate that violent volcanoes erupted 450 million years ago perhaps killing off marine life.

These clams were invasive species 450 million years ago, they may have stirred up the sediment making it difficult for brachiopods to live on the sea floor. The brachiopods would have sunk into the sediment clogging their organs needed to get oxygen and food.

To summarize, some graptolites went extinct, then cephalopods, and finally some brachiopods went extinct or buried into the sediment to avoid extinction at the end of the Ordovician 450 million years ago.

86 million years ago the central part of the US was covered with water. Part of this was due to melting of all polar ice and the rise of sea level, but something else was happening...

During the Cretaceous, 87 Million years ago, Tylosaurs were the top predators in a seaway that covered the central part of North America. A model of a Tylosaur is above this display. As the Pacific plate went under the North America plate, the central part of the US was pulled down

Platycarpus was a swift predator in the seas of the Cretaceous. It's jaws were hinged to allow the animal to eat it's prey whole and had recurved teeth so the prey could not get away.

These Cretaceous clams that lived 87 million years ago got to the size of basketballs. They died out 66 million years due to increased predation by arthropods such as crabs.

The Devonian time period was about 350 million years ago. Many animals died at the end of this time period perhaps due to the rise of plants on land, and nutrients flushed into the oceans which lead to lower oxygen levels as algae consumed the nutrients

An armored jawed fish from the Devonian 350 million years ago.

This trilobite is one of the oldest fossils in Virginia and lived here 540 million years ago. It is similar to crabs living today.

The biologic relationship of this cone shaped fossil is unknown. It could have been related to today's squids, jellyfish or may be a new phylum of animlas. It is 540 million years old.

These Archeocyathid fossils are 540 million years old, and are related to sponges today.

Spines on this brachiopods helped stabilize the animal in the sediment on the sea floor. They were too delicate to act as protection.

This fossil lived 345 million years ago during the Devonian, and is a coral.

This is scallop fossil is the state fossil for Virginia. It was proposed that this be the state fossil by Thomas Jefferson.

This is Claws, an extinct ground sloth that lived in Virginia during the ice ages. Thomas Jefferson originally found bones of this animal in a cave and thought they were bear bones.