GeorgiasFossils.comA 500 Million Year Record

ByThomas ThurmanAuthor,Amateur Paleontologist & Natural Historian

Brown’s Mount SummitMacon, Georgia

Roughly 200 ft above the surrounding terrain.

Crowned by 35 million year old boulders containing marine fossils.

(Same age as Clinchfield mine.)

Browns mount shows that 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

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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

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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 changeEvolution

Geologic timeMeteorites

Paleontology Plate tectonics

Sea level change Volcanoes

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Georgia’s Oldest Fossils500 million years ago

Researchers have studied the trilobites and other fossils of northwest Georgia since 1884.

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.

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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.

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Tifton GA is about 380 feet above sea level

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.

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Pterosaurs occur in west Georgia’s

83 million year old fossil beds.

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The goblin shark Scapanorhynchus texanus

78 million years oldGeorgia’s most common Cretaceous fossil.

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The mosasaur Tylosaurus

hunted Georgia 78 million years ago.

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Appalachiosaurus montgomeriensis78 million years ago

Illustration of an adolescent animal.

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78 million years ago Ostrich Dinosaurs hunted Georgia.

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Georgiacetus vogtlensis (the Georgia Whale)

Lived 40 million years ago. New Species named from Georgia fossils.

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The family of basilosaurids are well known from Georgia and

led to all modern whales.

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Brontotheres walked Georgia35 million years ago

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

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23.3 to 5.3 million years ago Both megalodon (to 60+ feet)

and Scaldicetus (to 23 feet), the Killer Sperm Whale, are present in the sea which covered South Georgia.

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Gavialosuchus americanus reached 32 feet in length, it

occurs in Georgia’s sediments dating between 5.3 and 2.5

million years ago.

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Rhinos also walked Georgia at this time. Not enough fossils were found for identification to the level of genus, but Teleoceras is confirmed in Florida

Most recently; we have Pleistocene Fossils

The modern gray whale, Eschrichtius robustus,

occurs in Georgia’s Pleistocene or Ice Age sediments.

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Giant bison and 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.

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

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The vast majority of graduating high school seniors

have had no exposure to this information.

Teachers had no information to share.

That’s why I assembled

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Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics

STEM Night, Westside Elementary, Warner Robins, 2014;

Carl Joyce of Kamin MineralsMyselfAshley Quinn of Paleo GeorgiaRick Spears of Paleo Georgia&Jay Batcha; Mid-GA Gem &

Mineral Society

Another route toward STEM isRESA

The Regional Educational Service Agency

Comprised of 16 regional educational service agencies strategically located in service districts throughout the State of Georgia.

RESA is a teacher resource.

RESA’s focus is on teacher education

• The agencies were established for the purpose of sharing services designed to improve the effectiveness of the educational programs of member school systems.

• In addition, the RESAs assist the State Department of Education in promoting its initiatives.

• The RESAs inform systems of innovation and gather research on programs as needed.

I’ll be presenting at the Southwest Georgia RESA conference for K-12 Science Teachers on Jun e 15.