Come Explore Georgia's Natural History
  • Home: Georgias Fossils
  • 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: Georgia's Oldest Vertebrate?
  • 5: Georgia Before the Dinosaurs
    • 5A; Georgia’s Pennsylvanian Plant Fossils
    • 5B: Carpentertypus durhami, Georgia’s Giant Insect, 315 Million Years Ago
    • 5C: Mississippian Trilobites in Northwest Georgia Describing the New Species Australosutura georgiana
    • 5D: Crinoids & Blastoids Of Northwest Georgia
  • *NEW* 5E; Fossils of Northwest Georgia
  • 6: 200 Million Years Ago
  • 6A: Birth of the Atlantic Ocean
  • 7: Cretaceous 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 schwimmeri in Recognition of Dr. David Schwimmer
    • 7I; The Blufftown Formation
    • 7J: New Species of Cretaceous Flowers Reported From Crawford County
    • 7K: Field Trip, Chattahoochee River Valley 1980
    • 7L: The Eutaw Formation
    • 7M: The Pio Nono Formation
    • 7N: Plant Fossils of Crawford County, GA
    • 7O; 1914 Report Georgia Plant Fossils From the Upper Cretaceous
    • 7P: Bill Montante's Mega "Gator" Tooth Discovery
  • 8: Suwannee Current, Gulf Trough, & Bridgeboro Limestone
  • 9: 60 million years ago, The Paleocene's Clayton Formation, A Report; By Hank Josey
    • 9A: The Georgia Turtle
    • 9B; Sassafras Hill Quarry Huber Formation Plant Fossils in Kaolin
  • 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's Famous Great Whale Goes 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
    • 14C1: Oldest Oreodont in the Southeast & Georgia's first!
    • 14D: Twiggs Clay Vertebrates
    • 14E: Ocmulgee Formation Vertebrates
    • 14F; Sandersville Limestone, By Hank Josey
    • 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
    • 14R: Browns Mount, The Fall Line, Elevations, Uplifts, & Native Middle Georgians
  • 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: Georgia’s 13 Million Year Old Dugong Metaxytherium calvertense
    • 18G: Gastropod Gulch, Julia Gardner, & Miocene Invertebrates In Decatur County
    • 18H; Bony Bluff, Rocky Ford, Echols County In Southernmost Georgia
  • 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 Pleistocene & Holocene Epochs, The Ice Ages
    • 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
    • 20K: Pleistocene Vertebrates from Coastal Georgia
    • 20L; Sandy Run Creek Core, Warner Robins, Houston County, GA
    • 20M: Bone Bed, Pleistocene, Coastal Georgia
    • 20N: Caribou & Elk Fossils from Georgia & Alabama
    • 20O; Tapir Veroensis, Walker County, Late Pleistocene
    • 20P; Ladds Pleistocene Vertebrates, Bartow County, GA
  • 21: Humans in Georgia
  • 22: Geology of the Coastal Plain, 1911
    • 22A: 1911 Cretaceous Fossil Locations
    • 22B: 1911 Eocene Fossil Locations
  • 23: GA County Localities, Houston County
  • 24: Science: Natural History & Geology
    • 24A; Podcast; The Tivola Whale of Houston County
    • 24B: Coastal Plain Correlation Chart
    • 24C: Presentation; Oaky Woods Stratigraphy
    • 24D: Physiographic Map of Georgia
    • 24E: Fossils of Oaky Woods
    • 24F: Collections & Stewardship of Georgia’s Fossils
    • 24G: I, Periarchus (A Fossil's Tale)
    • 24H: The Tivola Whales (April 2023 talk to the Mid-Georgia Gem & Mineral Society)
    • 24L: Needed; The Georgia Geologic Survey
    • 24M: Georgiacetus Presentation; A Whale for Georgia
    • 24N: Paul F. Huddlestun PhD, Georgia Coastal Plain Field Investigator >
      • 24N1: Late Eocene & Older... Coastal Plain Stratigraphy
      • 24N2: Gulf Trough Cores, Colquitt County, by Paul Huddlestun
      • 24N3; Washington County Core Logs By Paul Huddlestun
      • 24N4: Coastal Plain Core Logs by Paul F. Huddlestun
      • 24N5: Colquitt Core #6 By Paul Huddlestun
      • 24N6: Colquitt 10 & 7 Core
      • 24N7: Wayne County Core, Manningtown
      • 24N8: Gulf Trough Cores >
        • 24N8-1: Chatham County, Tybee Island Core
        • 24N8-2: Gulf Trough, USGS, Claxton, Evans County Core
        • 24N8-3: Blue Springs Landing Core, Screven County
        • 24N8-4: Toombs County Core, Baxley
    • 24O: Echinoids of Georgia, Cenozoic Era (Sand Dollars & Urchins) >
      • 24O1: Echinoids of Georgia, Cenozoic, By County
    • 24P; Exploring the Paleontology of Southernmost Georgia >
      • 24P1; Seminole County
      • 24P2: Decatur County Fossils & Natural History
      • 24P3: Grady County Blowing Caves, Forest Falls, Fossils & Natural History
  • 25: Education Material
    • 25A: My Field Kit; What You Need In The Field
    • 25B: Meet Crassostrea gigantissima, Georgia's Historic Giant Oyster
    • 25C: The Natural History & Fossils Record of Houston County, GA
    • 25D: Evidence for Evolution in Georgia's Fossil Record... A look at Teeth
    • 25E: Georgia's State Fossil; Shark Teeth
    • 25F: Georgia's Paleontology For Georgia's Classrooms
    • 25G: Library & School Presentations
    • 25H; An Introduction To Fossils; Presentation
  • 26: Georgia's Meteorites
    • 26A: Did I Find A Meteorite?
    • 26B: Georgia's Lost Meteorite
    • 26C: Georgia's Witnessed Meteorite Falls
    • 26D: The Sardis Iron, Georgia's Largest Meteorite

​15B: The Glendon Limestone
​
Eastern Gulf Of Mexico Stratigraphic Association


Approximately 30 million years old.
Hawkinsville, Pulaski County, Georgia
Location:
North 32°15.949’
West 083°27.345’
Elevation 210ft
​
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​Prominently atop the Marianna Limestone (Section 15A) and at that same outcrop along the Ocmulgee River you’ll see Georgia’s only known occurrence of the distinctly layered Glendon Limestone.
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​The Glendon Limestone was named, and the type locality set by C. W. Cooke in 1918 for Rupelian (Vicksburgian) Stage sediments of the Oligocene Epoch in a Clarke County, Alabama quarry which Paul Huddlestun reported 1993 as abandon and overgrown. The Glendon also occurs in Wayne County, Mississippi as well, where the Marianna Limestone underlies it as it does in Georgia.
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​While rich in microfossils the Glendon limestone does not contain many fossils observable in the field. ​

​Huddlestun described the Glendon thusly in 1993:
​

“The Glendon Limestone on the Ocmulgee River consists of alternating hard and soft layers (ledges and reentrants) of limestone. The limestone in the ledges are partially recrystallized and consists of approximately 94 percent calcium carbonate (Pickering, 1970, p. 51). The limestone in the reentrants is argillaceous, silty, consists of approximately 70 percent calcium carbonate, and contains conspicuous carbonaceous material. The Glendon Limestone on the Ocmulgee River differs from typical Glendon Limestone in being very sparsely macro-fossiliferous, and it does not contain a significant number of Lepidocyclina as is characteristic of the formation in Alabama. The soft limestone, however, is abundantly micro-fossiliferous.”

​In 1970 Sam Pickering called the Glendon Limestone Unit A of the Byram Formation and described it thusly (For clarity I have substituted “Unit A” for “Glendon”);
​

“The rhythmic alternating nature of the (Glendon) lithology of suggests that environmental conditions fluctuated regularly during deposition, probably due to varying availabilities of clastic silt and clay. The base of each of the tan clay beds of (the Glendon) contains a very great abundance of fossil material indicating that probably the influx of silt and clay killed large numbers of organisms by clogging their breathing apparatus. Most of the fossil remains observed in (the Glendon) were in their approximate living positions, indicating a probable life assemblage rather than a sedimentary accumulation of miscellaneous fossil material. Corals were observed to be considerably more abundant in the lower bed of limestone than in any other part of the unit. This limestone bed is also the thickest bed probably indicating that deposition occurred over a longer period of time during which corals could become more firmly established.”

​While usually accessed by boat you can hike the river bank & reach the Glendon Limestone and on 24, September 2017 Hank Josey and I (Thurman) made this trek, the most strenuous section was crossing the steep banks of Mile Creek where we’d made observations of the Marianna Limestone.
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​During our hike Hank Josey collected a sample of the hardened ledge which possessed a very nice Trochocyathus coral (see image), the hardened ledges are re-crystalized and our sample did not respond to acid. We did not test nor really inspect the soft re-entrants.

​Very few other fossils were evident but access from the river bank is difficult.


​Research by Pickering and later Huddlestun confirmed the Glendon to be of the Rupelian (Vicksburgian) Stage, Early Oligocene Epoch.

​In 1993 Huddlestun reported:
​

“The Glendon Limestone is Early Oligocene, Vicksburgian (Rupelian) in age. The only fossils that have been identified from the Glendon Limestone on the Ocmulgee River are all very rare and include Paraster americanus, fragments of an echinoid that appears to be Clypeaster rogersi, Lepidocyclina, and molds of the gastropod Xenophora (Pickering, pers. com., 1983). As reported, the meager fauna of the Glendon Limestone is consistent with a Vicksburgian age.”

​References;

​The Oligocene, A Revision of the Lithostratigraphic Units of the Coastal Plain of Georgia; Paul F. Huddlestun, Bulletin 105, Georgia Geologic Survey, 1993

Stratigraphic, Paleontology, and Economic Geology of Portions of Perry and Cochran Quadrangles, Georgia; Sam M. Pickering, Bulletin 81, Georgia Geologic Survey, 1970
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