2015 GSTA Conference Georgia’s Fossils A 500 Million Year Record GeorgiasFossils.comBy Thomas Thurman Author, Amateur Paleontologist & Natural Historian

Brown’s Mount Summit Macon, Georgia Roughly 61 meters (200 ft) above surrounding terrain. Crowned by 35 million year old boulders containing fossils of bottom dwelling marine invertebrates. 35 million years ago Bibb County was submerged beneath a shallow sub-tropical sea. That was neither the first nor last time. This genus of sand dollar emerged 37.2 million years ago and went extinct 33.9 million years ago during the Late Eocene Epoch (Priabonian Period). Periarchus is a guide fossil for sediments from this period. Periarchus pileussinensis GeorgiasFossils.com

Sir Charles Lyell is the father of modern geology and was a mentor of Charles Darwin. In the 1840s Lyell came to Macon during a USA tour, visited Brown’s Mount and in 1846 he wrote of the Eocene fossils he collected there. Georgia and global sea levels of the Late Eocene GeorgiasFossils.com

Georgia Fossil Map by County Our oldest fossils occur in Northwest Georgia with our most recent fossils in Central & Coastal Georgia. Earth Science Subjects Georgia can illustrate: Climate change Evolution Geologic time Meteorites Paleontology Plate tectonics Sea level change Volcanoes GeorgiasFossils.com

Georgia’s Oldest Fossils 500 million years ago Researchers have studied the trilobites and other fossils of northwest Georgia since When these animals lived… Georgia was in the Southern Hemisphere There were no bones, enameled teeth, vascular plants, or insects anywhere on the planet. The seas were full of life but terrestrial Earth was barren. GeorgiasFossils.com

Georgia Ridge and Valley Region Rugged, buckled sediments originally laid down flat during the Carboniferous and Permian Periods. Then about 300 million years ago North America collided with Gondwana creating the supercontinent Pangaea. The gradual impact buckled the terrain and raised the Appalachian Mountains near the center of Pangaea. This was followed by the Permian/Triassic extinction event 251 million years ago in which 83% of all living genera were erased. The Atlantic Ocean did not yet exist. GeorgiasFossils.com

Hypsoganthus, about 12 inches long, lived about 200 million years ago. It was discovered near Savannah in a drill core sample from more than 2,000 feet beneath the surface. It lived in a rift valley created when plate tectonics attempted, but failed, to open the Atlantic Ocean. Tectonics opened the Atlantic about 130 million years ago. GeorgiasFossils.com

Pterosaurs occur in west Georgia’s 83 million year old fossil beds. GeorgiasFossils.com

The goblin shark Scapanorhynchus texanus 78 million years old Georgia’s most common Cretaceous fossil. GeorgiasFossils.com

The giant lobe finned fish Megalocoelacanthus dobiei 78 million years old New genus & species named from Georgia & Alabama fossils GeorgiasFossils.com

The mosasaur Tylosaurus hunted Georgia 78 million years ago. GeorgiasFossils.com

Appalachiosaurus montgomeriensis 78 million years ago Illustration of an adolescent animal. GeorgiasFossils.com

78 million years ago Ostrich Dinosaurs hunted Georgia. GeorgiasFossils.com

Suwannee Current & Gulf Trough For 40 million years, a powerful current crossed the south Georgia, carving a vast trough, or canyon, which was completely buried by later large scale erosion. GeorgiasFossils.com

Georgiacetus vogtlensis (the Georgia Whale) Lived 40 million years ago. New Species named from Georgia fossils. GeorgiasFossils.com

The family of basilosaurids are the first whales known to have possessed flukes and are confirmed in 37.2 million years ago. GeorgiasFossils.com

Brontotheres walked Georgia 35 million years ago GeorgiasFossils.com

Terminator Pigs (Entelodonts) also walked Georgia 35 million years ago. GeorgiasFossils.com

C. megalodon The largest shark that ever lived, is well known from the Peach State. Adults reached at least 52 feet in length, and may have exceeded 67 feet in length. There is evidence that they actively hunted whales. GeorgiasFossils.com

23.3 to 5.3 million years ago both megalodon and Scaldicetus, the Killer Sperm Whale, are present in the sea which covered South Georgia. Scaldicetus grew to nearly 23 feet. Megalodon may have exceeded 60 feet. GeorgiasFossils.com

Gavialosuchus americanus was known to reach 32 feet in length, it is reported in Georgia’s sediments dating between 5.3 and 2.5 million years ago. GeorgiasFossils.com

At 5.3 to 2.5 million years ago the sirens (closely related to manatees) are present in Georgia. GeorgiasFossils.com

In this same time frame, rhinos walked Georgia. Not enough fossils were found for identification to the level of genus, but Teleoceras is confirmed in Florida GeorgiasFossils.com

Most recently; we have Pleistocene Fossils The modern gray whale, Eschrichtius robustus, occurs in Georgia’s Pleistocene or Ice Age sediments. GeorgiasFossils.com

The Pleistocene saw the giant ground sloth in Georgia. This species stood more than 20 feet tall on its hind legs. GeorgiasFossils.com

Giant bison walked Georgia 21,000 years ago, several individuals were reported in a single find near Brunswick. GeorgiasFossils.com

Ice Age mammoths also walked Georgia. Columbian mammoths were originally named from a Georgia fossil by the Scottish Paleontologist Hugh Falconer. During Sir Charles Lyell’s 1846 Georgia visit. He was given a fossilized tooth by Hamilton Cooper which had been discovered during canal work in the Brunswick, Georgia area. Lyell passed the tooth to Hugh Falconer, who used it to establish the species Mammuthus columbi; the Columbian Mammoth. GeorgiasFossils.com

At 17,000 years ago we have both the Columbian Mammoth and Humans, the Clovis People, in Georgia GeorgiasFossils.com

From trilobites, through dinosaurs, the origins of whales, and on to mammoths…. Georgia’s fossil record is deep, rich, and diverse. It’s almost unknown by our students, parents & teachers. GeorgiasFossils.com Until now teachers have had no source of information.