Exploring Georgia's Natural History
  • Natural History & Geology
    • Podcast; The Tivola Whale
    • Coastal Plain Correlation Chart
    • GA Paleo Research by Paul F. Huddlestun PhD >
      • Late Eocene & Older... Coastal Plain Stratigraphy
      • Washington County Core Logs By Paul Huddlestun
      • Coastal Plain Core Logs by Paul F. Huddlestun
    • Presentation; Oaky Woods Stratigraphy
    • Physiographic Map of Georgia
    • Fossils of Oaky Woods
    • Collections & Stewardship of Georgia’s Fossils
    • I, Periarchus (A Fossil's Tale)
    • Georgia's Amateurs >
      • Amateur; Jared Dyche, On The Way To A Degree
      • Cam Muskelly, Duluth, GA
      • Kyle Keller, Valdosta, GA >
        • Kyle Keller Returns, Still Rocking!
      • Hank Josey, Dublin
      • Bill Christy; Kamin Performance Minerals Fossils
    • Public Fossil Locations >
      • South Houston County Fossils
      • Updated; Islands of the Savannah River
    • Georgia Fossils in the Smithsonian
  • Education Material
    • My Field Kit; What You Need In The Field
    • Meet Crassostrea gigantissima, Georgia's Historic Giant Oyster
    • Georgiacetus Presentation; A Whale for Georgia
    • The Natural History & Fossils Record of Houston County, GA
    • Evolution in Georgia's Fossil Record
    • Georgia's State Fossil; Shark Teeth
    • Georgia's Paleontology For Georgia's Classrooms
    • SW GA RESA 2018 Talk
    • Library & School Presentations
    • An Introduction To Fossils; Presentation
    • Georgia's Fossils Presentation; 500 million years
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  • Meteorites
    • Did I Find A Meteorite?
    • Georgia's Lost Meteorite
    • Georgia's Witnessed Meteorite Falls
    • The Sardis Iron, Georgia's Largest Meteorite
  • 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
  • 6: 200 Million Years Ago
    • 6A: Birth of the Atlantic Ocean
  • 7: Cretaceous Georgia, Dinosaurs & more
    • 7A: Georgias Pterosaur
    • 7C: Coelecanths
    • 7B: So Many Sharks
    • 7D: Xiphactinus vetus
    • 7E: Side-necked turtles
    • 7F: Marine Reptiles
    • 7G: Dinosaurs in Georgia
    • 7I; The Blufftown Formation
    • 7L: Bill Montante's Mega "Gator" Tooth Discovery
    • 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
    • 10A: The Origins of Whales
  • 11: A Whale For Georgia
  • 12: Basilosaurids; The First Modern Whales
    • 12A: Basilosaurus cetoides
    • 12B: Basilotritus
    • 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
  • 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
  • Building This Site
    • Origins Of This Site
    • Contributing Artists
    • Black & White Sketches
14K: Shell Bluff
Georgia’s Most Historic Fossils

​By
Henry N. Josey, PharmD.
Filed August 20, 2018
​
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​Shell Bluff, on the Savannah River in Eastern Burke County, Georgia, is beyond a doubt the most historically significant fossil site in the state.  Its history dates back centuries, even to the pre – colonial period when Native Americans encamped in the area.  Hernando de Soto explored the site in 1540.  William Bartram, the father of American botany, visited in 1765 and first described the large fossil oysters found there.  John Finch described these oysters in 1824, naming them Ostrea gigantissima in a paper read before the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia.  Vanuxem visited the site in 1824 and Timothy A. Conrad in 1834.  Conrad was the first researcher to identify the strata as Eocene age.  Charles Lyell stopped at Shell Bluff on January 2, 1842 and spent several days collecting specimens.
​Shell Bluff is the type locality for the fossil giant oyster Crassostrea gigantissima.  The species’ name has evolved through several iterations including Ostrea gigantissima, Ostrea georgiana, and several others.  This species is relatively common in Eocene deposits of  Georgia although nowhere else did this species appear so numerous or grow so large, excepting perhaps Griffin’s Landing, 17 miles downstream on the Savannah River.  Specimens up to 22 inches in length have been documented there although these are few and far between now.  
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Several geologic units are present at the site.  The most basal unit is the McBean Member of the Lisbon Formation which is middle Eocene in age. It contains abundant mollusks including the middle Eocene guide fossil Ostrea sellaeformis as well as many other species.  Above this is the Clinchfield Sand Formation of late Eocene age.  This layer has produced vertebrate fossils including shark and ray teeth as well as whale and dugong bones. Finally, the uppermost layer consists of the Griffin’s Landing Member of the Dry Branch Formation. This is the layer which yields the Crassostrea gigantissima oysters which give Shell Bluff its name.
​
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 The author traveled to this locality in July 2018 for the purpose of describing the site and collecting samples.  This site is now in the hands of private landowners, and visitors must have permission to examine the site.  Access by land is almost impossible.  The bluff can only be reached via Shell Bluff Landing, approximately 300 yards downstream from Shell Bluff.  The author found most of the upper layers of the site being slowly covered with soil and overgrown with forest.  However, this has been significant slumping of the upper layers on to the river band so some late Eocene material is available for study.  The bluff itself rises almost 150 feet high above the banks of the Savannah River.
​

The following species have been identified from Shell Bluff, both in the literature and the author’s personal research collection.


Astrangia                                       Coral
Aturia alabamiensis                    Nautiloid
Calyptraea aperta                        Snail
Carcharias accuttisima               Sand tiger shark
Carophyllia subdichotoma         Solitary coral
Chlamys membranosus               Scallop
Corbula alabamiensis                  Basket clam
Corbula fossata                              Basket clam
Corbula oniscus                              Basket clam
Crassatellites protextus                Clam
Crassostrea gigantissima            Giant oyster
Crepidula lirata                              Slipper snail
Cytherea discoidalis                      Clam
Cytherea perovata                         Clam
Cytherea poulsoni                          Clam
Cytherea texacola                          Clam
Dendrophyllia                                 Stony cup coral
Dentalium thalloides                     Tusk shell
Endopachys maclurii                    Solitary coral
Fusus irrasus                                   Sea snail
Fusus limulus                                   Sea snail
Fusus trabeatus                               Sea snail
Glycymeris trigonella                    Bittersweet clam
Leda pharcida                                  Clam
Lunulites bouei                                 Bryzoa
Mesalia claibornensis                     Sea Snail
Nucula magnifica                            Nut clam
Ostrea alabamiensis                       Oyster
Ostrea sellaeformis                         Oyster
Oxyrhina desori                               Mako shark
Plejona petrosa                                Volute shell
Pteropsis lapidosa                           Clam
Turritella humerosa                       Sea Snail
Turritella vetusia                            Sea Snail
Turritella vetusta                            Sea Snail
Venericardia alticosta                   Cockle shell
Venericardia planicosta                Cockle shell
​


​​References
 
Edwards, Elliot O., Jr. “Shell Bluff – A Fossiliferous Ridge, the Site of the Extinct Oyster Crassostrea gigantissima and History of It Identification.” 2016. Georgia Academy of Science.
 
Huddlestun, P. F. and J. H. Summerour. The Lithostratigraphic Framework of the Uppermost Cretaceous and Lower Tertiary of Eastern Burke County, Georgia. 1996. Georgia Department of Natural Resources, Georgia Geologic Survey. Bulletin 127. Atlanta, Georgia.
 
Richards, H. G. Illustrated Fossils of the Georgia Coastal Plain. 1969.Georgia Mineral Newsletter.
 
Toulmin, Lyman D. Stratigraphic Distribution of Paleocene and Eocene Fossils in the Eastern Gulf Coast Region. 1977. Geological Survey of Alabama.  Monograph 13. University, Alabama.
 
Veatch, O. V and W. L. Stephenson. Preliminary Report on the Geology of the Coastal Plain of Georgia. 1911. Geological Survey of Georgia. Bulletin 26. Foote & Davies:  Atlanta, GA.
Walker, Cyril and David Ward.  Eyewitness Handbooks:  Fossils. 1992. Dorling Kindersley, Inc. New York.