Exploring Georgia's Fossil Record
  • Items of Interest
    • Contributing Artists
    • Public Fossil Locations >
      • South Houston County Fossils
      • Updated; Islands of the Savannah River
    • I, Periarchus (A Fossil's Tale)
    • Georgia's Amateurs >
      • Cam Muskelly, Duluth, GA
      • Kyle Keller, Valdosta, GA >
        • Kyle Keller Returns, Still Rocking!
      • Hank Josey, Dublin
      • Thomas Thurman, Warner Robins, GA
      • Bill Christy; Kamin Performance Minerals Fossils
    • Coastal Plain Correlation Chart
    • Origins Of This Site
    • Georgia Fossils in the Smithsonian
    • Stratigraphy of the Tobacco Road Sand - A New Formation; Huddlestun & Hetrick A Late Eocene Formation
  • Education Material
    • Georgiacetus Presentation; A Whale for Georgia
    • SW GA RESA 2018 Talk
    • Laurens & Houston County Library Presentations 2018
    • An Introduction To Fossils; Presentation
    • Georgia's Fossils Presentation; 500 million years
    • Free Fossils for Georgia's Science Teachers; Exogyra ponderosa
    • Free Fossils for GA Science Teachers; Crassostrea gigantissima
    • Georgia College Natural History Museum
  • *NEW* 1:Archaeocyathids; Georgia’s Oldest Fossils At 513 Million Years Old
  • 2: Trilobites; 500 Million Years Ago
    • 2A; Murray County Stromatolites
  • 3: Geologic Time
  • 4: Our Oldest Vertebrate?
  • 5: Before the Dinosaurs
    • 5A; Georgia’s Pennsylvanian Plant Fossils
  • 6: 200 Million Years Ago
    • 6A: Birth of the Atlantic Ocean
  • 7: Georgia Dinosaurs & more
    • 7A: Georgias Pterosaur
    • 7B: So Many Sharks
    • 7C: Coelecanths
    • 7D: Xiphactinus vetus
    • 7E: Side-necked turtles
    • 7F: Marine Reptiles
    • 7G: Dinosaurs in Georgia
    • 7H: Deinosuchus (Terrible Crocodile)
  • 8: Suwannee Current, Gulf Trough, & Bridgeboro Limestone
  • 9: The Clayton Formation Report; By Hank Josey
    • 9A: The Georgia Turtle
  • 10: The Eocene; Georgia's Oldest Mammals
    • 10A: The Origins of Whales
  • 11: A Whale For Georgia
  • 12: Basilosaurids; The First Modern Whales
    • 12A: Basilosaurus cetoides
    • 12B: Basilotritus
    • 12C: Cynthiacetus
    • 12D: Chrysocetus
    • 12E: The Redmond Mandible of Albany Ga
  • 12F; Houston County Basilosaurus to the Smithsonian
  • 13: Ziggy and The Museum of Arts & Sciences, Macon, GA
  • 14: Late Eocene
    • 14A: Eocene Fossils & Stratigraphy
    • 14B: Clinchfield Formation Vertebrates
    • 14C: Tivola Limestone Vertebrates
    • 14D: Twiggs Clay Vertebrates
    • 14E: Ocmulgee Formation Vertebrates
    • 14F: Oaky Woods Report
    • 14G; Sandersville Limestone, By Hank Josey
    • 14I: Dating Late Eocene Sediments
    • 14J: Georgia's Tektites; Georgiaites
    • 14K; Shell Bluff; Georgia's Most Historic Paleontology Site
  • 15: Early Oligocene
    • 15A: The Marianna Limestone
    • 15B; The Glendon Limestone
    • 15C: Undiffereniated Oligocene Residuum
  • 16: Bonaire GA Entelodont
  • 17: The Whale Eating Shark
  • 18: Miocene Epoch; 23.3 to 5.3 Million Years Ago
    • 18A; Miocene Terrestrial Vertebrates
    • 18B; Paul Fell, Rockhouse Cave
  • 19: Pliocene Epoch; 5.3 to 2.5 Million years Ago
  • 20: The Ice Ages; Pleistocene & Holocene Epochs
    • 20A: Pleistocene Vertebrate List
    • 20B: The Milankovitch Cycle
    • 20C: Georgia’s Eolian Dunes
    • 20D: Georgia’s Carolina Bays
    • 20E: Late Pleistocene Significant Events
    • 20F: Southeastern Thermal Enclave
    • 20G; Diamond Back Terrapins
  • 21: Humans in Georgia
  • 22: Geology of the Coastal Plain, 1911
    • 22A: 1911 Cretaceous Fossil Locations
    • 22B: 1911 Eocene Fossil Locations
  • 23: Coastal GA Locations (1957)
  • 24: Needed; The Georgia Geologic Survey
  • Speakers Available

​12D: Chrysocetus


Also firmly in the basilosaurid family is the genus Chrysocetus currently known only through a single species; Chrysocetus healyorum which was described by Dr. Mark D. Uhen and Dr. Philip D. Gingerich in paper entitled “New genus of Dorudontine archaeocete (Cetacea) From the South Carolina Middle to Late Eocene” and published by The Society of Marine Mammalogy’s publication Marine Mammal Science in 2001.
  
This new genus and species of mid-sized basilosaurid; Chrysocetus healyorum was discovered in the Santee Cement Quarry (Formerly known as the Santee Portland Quarry) in Holly Hill, Orangeburg County, South Carolina. The genus name Chrysocetus is derived from the Greek work “chrysous” meaning golden, referring to the rich color of the fossils, and “ketos” meaning whale; so the golden whale.
  
The species name healyorum is in honor of Craig and Alice Healy from West Columbia, South Carolina who discovered the specimen which established the species.
  
The find was a sub-adult individual though it already possessed fully formed mature molars; they were serrated in the basilosaurid fashion and are considered more gracile than many basilosaurids.
  
The find included a partial skull, lower jaw, several teeth, many vertebrae, ribs, sternum, parts of the left forelimb, and pelvis. 
  
The most current research shows that the sediments which produced the specimen are Priabonian in age. Very few additional individuals have been reported.
   


References:
Basilosaurid Evolution
A Review of North American Basilosauridae: Mark D. Uhen, 2013. Bulletin 31, Vol. 2, Alabama Museum of Natural History, April,1, 2013