State legislators drop opposition to New Zion girl's request for State Fossil

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Two state legislators opposed to an 8-year-old New Zion girl's petition to have the wooly mammoth declared the state's fossil have dropped their protests.

Olivia McConnell had written a letter to her elected officials calling for the animal to be the State Fossil. According to thestate.com, she gave three reasons in her writings to the legislature.

  • One of the first discoveries of a vertebrae fossil in North American was on a South Carolina plantation when slaves dug up woolly mammoth teeth from a swamp in 1725.
  • All but seven states have an official state fossil
  • Fossils tell us about our past.

State Sens. Mike Fair, R-Greenvile, and Kevin Bryant, R-Anders, said earlier this week that they opposed such a measure if it didn't outline within any legislation sanctioning a state fossil that "God created the fossils."

Bryant also attempted to add two verses from the book of Genesis to the bill. Bryant is a self-described "born-again Christian." GreenvilleOnline.com reported that his amendment was ruled out-of-order, leading Fair to lodge an objection to the bill, which effectively killed it.

Fair is a self-described creationist who believes evolution shouldn't be taught in school science curriculums. He said he dropped his own objections after a colleague explained to him how much work Olivia put into urging the state to adopt the Columbia Mammouth as South Carolina's State Fossil.