Culpepper Land and Farming History

History of Our Name

History of Our Name

Oyster Ridge takes its name from the fossilized oyster shells found throughout the property.  Exogyra, the scientific name for these shells, are an extinct genus of bivalve mollusks, akin to oysters.  These ancient oyster fossils lived over 65 million years ago and are mistakenly referred to as “devil’s toenails”.  Exogyra were common in shallow-water marine deposits of the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods.  Common characteristics of Exogyra are the thick shell, which often attained massive proportions.  The left valve is spirally twisted, whereas the right valve is flattish and much smaller.  They are often defined by the distinctive longitudinal pattern of ribbing in the left valve, as well as pitting. (Britannica Online Encyclopedia).
The belief behind how the Exogyra became fossilized on the property is credited to the Ripley Formation, a geological formation found in Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi and Tennessee.  Consisting largely of glauconitic sandstone, the formation was formed by sediments deposited during the Maastrichtian stage, the last stage of the Cretaceous period.