West Virginia's mostly sedimentary rocks formed during the Paleozoic era.

To generalize, as you move westward across West Virginia, the mostly sedimentary rocks get progressively younger. The Blue Ridge rocks are mainly of Precambrian and Cambrian age, the Great Valley is Cambrian and Ordovician, the Valley and Ridge is Silurian and Devonian, the Allegheny Mountains are Devonian and Mississippian, and the Appalachian Plateau is Pennsylvanian to Permian.

 

The WVGES link below provides a summary of the state’s geologic history:

http://www.wvgs.wvnet.edu/www/geology/geolhist.htm

 

The USGS link below shows ages of bedrock geology:

http://tapestry.usgs.gov/states/westvirginia.html -

 

 

Fossils

The following links show some of the fossils found in West Virginia:

http://www.wvgs.wvnet.edu/www/museum/musefoss.htm

 

http://www.geocraft.com/WVFossils/TableOfCont.html