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  • 1: Georgia's Oldest Fossils; Archaeocyathids, At 513 Million Years Old
  • 2: Trilobites; 500 Million Years Ago
    • 2A; Murray County Stromatolites
    • 2B; A Trilobite Nest in Georgia
  • 3: Geologic Time
  • 4: Our Oldest Vertebrate?
  • 5: Georgia Before the Dinosaurs
    • 5A; Georgia’s Pennsylvanian Plant Fossils
    • 5B: Carpentertypus durhami, Georgia’s Giant Insect, 315 Million Years Ago
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    • 7I; The Blufftown Formation
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    • 7K: The Pio Nono Formation
    • 7J: The Eutaw Formation
    • 7H: Deinosuchus schwimmeri in Recognition of Dr. David Schwimmer
  • 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
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  • 11: A Whale For Georgia
  • 12: Basilosaurids; The First Modern Whales
    • 12A: Basilosaurus cetoides
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    • 12C: Cynthiacetus (Revised)
    • 12D: Chrysocetus
    • 12E: The Redmond Mandible of Albany Ga
    • 12F; Houston County, GA Basilosaurus to the Smithsonian
  • 13: Ziggy and The Museum of Arts & Sciences, Macon, GA
  • 14: Late Eocene
    • 14A: Eocene Fossils & Stratigraphy
    • 14B; Fossils, Impacts, & Tektites Dating the Clinchfield Formation
    • 14C: The Tivola Limestone
    • 14D: Twiggs Clay Vertebrates
    • 14F; Sandersville Limestone, By Hank Josey
    • 14E: Ocmulgee Formation Vertebrates
    • 14I: Dating Late Eocene Sediments
    • 14J: Georgia's Tektites; Georgiaites
    • 14K; Shell Bluff; Georgia's Most Historic Paleontology Site
    • 14L; Taylors Bluff, Paleo Paddling the Ocmulgee River
    • 14M; Eocene Terrestrial Mammals From Gordon, GA
    • 14N: Fossil Ridge, A Stratigraphic Study in Oaky Woods Wildlife Management Area
    • 14O; Georgia's First Entelodont
    • 14P: Historic Rich Hill
    • 14Q; Bibb County's Christy Hill, Clinchfield Formation Hilltop
  • 15: Early Oligocene
    • 15A: The Marianna Limestone
    • 15B; The Glendon Limestone
    • 15C: Undiffereniated Oligocene Residuum
    • 15D; Brissus bridgeboroensis; A New Echinoid Species From Georgia’s Bridgeboro Limestone
    • 15E: The Curious Steinkern Sea Biscuits of Red Dog Farm Road
    • 15F: Early Oligocene Gordian Knot
  • 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
    • 18C: The Marks Head Formation
    • 18D: Miocene Terrestrial Vertebrates of the Marks Head Formation
    • 18E: The Statenville Formation
    • 18F: South Georgia’s Dugong Metaxytherium calvertense
  • 19: Pliocene Epoch; 5.3 to 2.5 Million years Ago
    • 19A: Two Small Primitive Horses from Taylor County Advance the Science of Georgia Geology
  • 20: The Ice Ages; Pleistocene & Holocene Epochs
    • 20A; Clark Quarry's Mammoths & Bison
    • 20B: Pleistocene Vertebrate List
    • 20C: Georgia’s Eolian Dunes
    • 20D: Georgia’s Carolina Bays
    • 20E: Late Pleistocene Significant Events
    • 20F: Southeastern Thermal Enclave
    • 20G; Diamond Back Terrapins
    • 20H; A Kaolin Mine Beaver Dam
    • 20I; Pleistocene Vertebrate Fossils On Georgia’s Piedmont
    • 20J; Watkins Quarry Pleistocene Vertebrates, Glynn County, GA
  • *NEW* 20K: Pleistocene Vertebrates from Coastal Georgia
  • 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
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14I: Dating Late Eocene Sediments
​

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Please download the latest version of
​this chart below.
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Paleo Data
This is ongoing research. Paleo Data created the above PDF file as a guide to Gulf Coast sediments, they are a research consulting firm.
Ryan D. Weber, Manager of Biostratigrapher for Paleo Data kindly gave me permission to post this chart and add a link to their website, the chart is frequently updated.
The chart can be downloaded at this link. www.paleodata.com/chart/



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Forams (Foraminifera)
Foraminifera are essentially ameba with calcium shells, known as forams for short they occur in fresh and salt water in a variety of environments and can be present in numbers, especially in marine (saltwater) environments. Their shells easily fossilize. They often evolve quickly and tend to be very sensitive to their natural environment. 
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Nannoplankton
As the name suggests, nannoplankton is microscopic, single cell plankton. Calcareous nannoplankton is the same but in life it creates a calcium shell which easily and frequently fossilizes. Like forams, calcareous nannoplankton tends to be marine, evolve quickly, and are often present in numbers.
​      
Dating sediments
Forams & calcareous nannoplankton are used to accurately date sediments. The oil industry has put a great deal of effort and financing into tracking and dating their evolutionary paths. This research has allowed an easy-to-use chart to be constructed which shows the ranges of many forams and species of calcareous nannoplankton. The chart emphasizes the upper boundary for species, or when they became extinct.
 
When a scientist isolates and identifies the forams and calcareous nannoplankton in any given sample that information can be used to date the sediments. The more species identified, the greater accuracy found.
​

Results
Using this chart and referring to the published literature, we can run the forams and calcareous nannoplankton researchers documented and confirm the ages of various Eocene formations in central Georgia.


Upper Jacksonian Stage
​(Uppermost Priabonian)

Sediments                                      (Uppermost age in Millions of years)
Ocmulgee Formation (1 & 2)                                               33.9 MYA
     Hantkenina alabamensis                                                     33.9 MYA
​     Bulimina jacksonensis                                                          
33.8 MYA
Tobacco Road Sand (1 & 2)                                                   33.9 MYA
     (Interfingers w/Ocmulgee Form.) 
Sandersville Limestone (1 & 2)                                           33.9 MYA
     (Interfingers w/Tobacco Road)   
The sand dollar genus Periarchus also occurs (in abundance) in the Ocmulgee Formation, Tobacco Road Sand & Sandersville Limestone; limiting its uppermost age to the Eocene/Oligocene Horizon 33.9 mya. 
Lower Jacksonian Stage (Mid Priabonian)
Dry Branch Formation
     Twiggs Clay Member
            Twiggs Clay Foram                                                         Upper Age
            Textularia hockleyensis                                                         34.35
     Irwinton Sand Member
     Griffins Landing Member (2)
            Griffins Landing Forams                                               Upper Age
            Turborotalia cocoaensis (Formerly Globorotalia)              34.0
            Globigerinatheka tropicalis                                                     35.2
            Hantkenina alabamensis                                                         33.8
            Subbotina linaperta  (Formerly Globigerian)                      35.0
Tivola Limestone
No forams listed for the Tivola occur on the Paleo Data Chart

Clinchfield Formation (1&2)
Riggins Mill Member
Treadwell Member
Albion Member
Utley Limestone Member
             Clinchfield Foram                                                           Upper Age
             Subbotina linaperta (Former Genus Globigerina)         35.00
             Texularia didollensis (4)                                                       35.42
             Turborotalia cerroazulensis cocoaensis (4)                     34.03
                 (The above is formerly Globorotalia cocoaensis)
​             Marginulina cocoaensis (4)                                                 34.00
Bartonian Stage (Clairborne)
Lisbon Formation
            Blue Bluff Member of the Lisbon Formation (3)
            Blue Bluff Forams                                                            Upper Age
            Chiasmolithus solitus                                                               39.71

Forams
In Sam Pickering's 1970 paper (1) he listed both species & frequency. 
Formations, Left to Right;
Lisbon, Clinchfield, Tivola, Ocmulgee, Marianna (Early Oligocene), & Undifferentiated Oligocene Residuum
Species in red occur on Paleo Data chart  

Pickering; 1970 (1) (Huddlestun's formation nomenclature {2})
Frequency; a=Abundant, c=Common, vr=Very Rare, r=Rare 
Species                                    Lisbo   Clinch    Tivola     Twigg    Ocmul   Maria  UnOli      Upper Age
Siphonina jacksonensis                                         r              c
Cibicides americanus              c                             r              c             c             r
Cibicides mississippiensis                                                     c             r
Cibicides lobatalus                                                                  r            a
Cibicides planoconvexus         r                                             c            c             r
Cibicides westi                           r
Planulina byramensis                                                                          c
Planulina cocoaensis                                                              vr          r
Planulina cooperensis                                                                          c
Planorbulina mediterranensis                                                           r
Lepidocyclina ocalana                          r              a               vr
Lepidocyclina undosa                                                                                                      a
Lepidocyclina mantelli                                                                                       a
Nummulites floridensis                         vr
Robulus alato-limbatus                                        r               r             c             r
Marginulina cocoaensis                                                                       c                                                33.97
Dentalina jacksonensis                                                                         r
Dentalina cocoaensis                                                                            c
Nodosaria latejugata                                                                            c
Lagena laevis                                                                                          c
Lagena hexagona                                                                     vr          r
Guttalina problema                                                                               r
Globulina gibba globosa                                                                      c
Nonion advenum                      r                           c                 a            vr
Nonion inexcavatum               r                            r                 r

Species                                    Lisbo   Clinch    Tivola     Twigg    Ocmul   Maria  UnOli      Upper Age
Nonion vicksburgensis                                                                                        c
Hantkenina alabamensis                                                                     vr                                               33.8
Bulimina jacksonensis                                                                          c                                                 33.9
Bolivina jacksonensis                                                               r           c              r
Spiroplectammina mississippiensis                                                  r               r
Textularia subhauri                                                                  r
Textularia hockleyensis                                                            c                                                            34.35
Textularia adalta                                                                                                   c          c
Gaudryina jacksonensis                                                                      r
Karreriella (sp?)                                                                                    vr
Liebusella byramensis                                                                         r                r
Quinqueloculina vicksburgensis                                                                         r           c
Quinqueloculina monroei                                                                                     r
Pyrogo (sp?)                                                                                          vr
Pyrogo byramensis                                                                                                r           r
Uvigerina vicksburgensis                                                                                     r                                31.12
Uvigerina jacksonensis                                                                      c
Angulogerina byramensis                                                                                    c
Discorbis assulata                                                                       r       r
Discorbis arcuatocostata                                                                                      c

Species                                    Lisbo   Clinch      Tivola     Twigg    Ocmul   Maria  UnOli     Upper Age
Mississippina monsouri                                                                                       c
Valvulineria jacksonensis                                         c              c        a
Valvulineria paucilocula                                                                                      c
Gyroidina vicksburgensis                                                                                    c
Eponides jacksonensis                                               r               r
Eponides advena                                                                                                    c
Eponides byramensis                                                                          r                c
Paraotalia parva                                                                                                   c                     
Pararotalia Mexicana var.                                                                                             a
Siphonina (sp?)                       r
Siphonina byramensis                                                          r           a
Reusella eocena                                   c
Reusella oligocenica                                                                                              r
Reusella byramensis                                                                           r                 c          a
Asterigerina subacuta                                                                                           c
Alabamina mississippiensis                                                                                 c
​References:

1) Stratigraphy, Paleontology, & Economic Geology of Portions of Perry & Cochran Quadrangles, Georgia; Sam Pickering Jr, Bulletin 81, Georgia Geologic Survey, 1970

2) Upper Eocene Stratigraphy of Central & Eastern Georgia; Paul F. Huddlestun & John H. Hetrick, Bulletin 95, Dept of Natural Resources Evironmental Protection Division Georgia Geologic Survey, 1986

3) A New Middle Eocene Protocetid Whale (Mammalia: Cetacea: Archaeoceti) & Associated Biota From Georgia; Richard C Hulbert, Jr., Richard M Petkewich, Gale A. Bishop, David Bukry, & David P. Aleshire; Journal of Paleontology, 1998

​4) Age and Correlation of the Clinchfield Sand in Georgia; S. M. Herrick, Geological Survey Bulletin 1354-E, U.S. Department of Interior, 1972
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