Exploring Georgia's Natural History
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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
  • 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
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    • Origins Of This Site
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18D: Miocene Terrestrial Fossils
Marks Head Formation
Porters Landing
Savannah River

By
Thomas Thurman & 
​Henry N. Josey, PharmD.
Filed 04/Dec/2022

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Miocene Terrestrial Vertebrates
In 1989, Ann Pratt & Richard Petkewich from Georgia Southern University, reported early Miocene terrestrial vertebrates from Marks Head Formation at Porters Landing along the Savannah River in Effingham County.
 
The 1989 research team collected over 500 kilograms (1100 pounds) of sediments from the 8-meter thick (26.25 feet) thick Mark’s Head Formation at Porter’s Landing and washed them through a series of nested screens. (1) They described the fossil bed as interlayered sand, clay, and clay rich sand.
​
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Sadly Porters Landing is now private property and is no longer accessible except via the Savannah River, and even then the trip is arduous. Nevertheless, Hank Josey made that trip upriver and filed a 30/May/2022 report on this website, See Section 18C: The Marks Head Formation. (2)
 
Hank did a superb job of describing the formation and we won’t repeat his work here, he mentions the crocodile & sea turtle fossils Hubiak reported. The foundation of his report was the 1999 paper by Leann Hubiak (3) which discussed the ample fish fossils Pratt & Petkewich’s fieldwork recovered in 1989. Hubiak fulfilled the requirements of her master’s degree with this paper.


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In his report Hank added his own findings from Porters Landings as well as contemporary work done by respected, Coastal Georgia amateur Chet Kirby. They were both advised by our collective friend Dr. Paul Huddlestun. Mr. Paul stood as a the lead researcher of Coastal Plain deposits for the Georgia Geologic Survey. Hank’s report is an excellent read.
 
By why the gap between the 1989 collection of material and the 1999 publication? It’s not unusual for universities to collect and hold a fairly large sample of matrix or fossils for later educational research. It’s an opportunity for promising students, like Hubiak, to publish. But typically the professors will publish a preliminary paper on the material to establish it. 

​I cannot see that this is the case for Porter’s landing. Despite the author’s best efforts no further published work could be found. Hubiak covered the fish in excellent detail, but I’ve seen nothing more on the terrestrial vertebrates, reptiles and marine mammals. I’m told that Ann Pratt moved to South Florida and left paleontology decades ago. Sadly, Dr. Richard Petkewich, a renowned researcher into the natural history of whales, passed away some decades ago. Requests for further information from the Paleontology Curator at Georgia Southern Museum have thus-far gone unanswered. If news is heard this page will be updated.  
 
So all we have to go on is the original 1989 account which was not a published paper but an oral report at the April 1989 meeting of the Georgia Academy of Sciences. It is preserved in a half page paragraph from the Georgia Journal of Science.
To quote the narrative… “The majority of the vertebrates recovered thus far are marine and include crocodiles, sea turtles and dolphin.” 
​
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Miocene Pollen
The other half of that same page is a report on Miocene pollen.
 
On that same April morning in 1989, immediately after the report on Mark’s Head vertebrates, James H. Darrell, (4) also from Georgia Southern, reported on Mark’s Head pollen. A report on pollen tells us a great deal about the local environment which these beds were laid down. Dinoflagellates made up roughly 10% of the fine-grained specimens. “Small pieces of woody/lignitic material was dispersed through the sediments, a very nearshore marine environment is inferred.”
 
It was an environment not so different from ours.
 
It’s been 33 years since these fossils were originally collected. I want to thank the Paleontology Association of Georgia (PAG) for posting this report on their Resource webpage. (5) Otherwise it might have been lost to history.


Miocene
​Terrestrial Vertebrates, Marine Mammals & Reptiles   
 
 
Marine Mammal
Published Description        Qty                  Popular Name
Dolphin                                 ?                      Dolphin
      (Sadly, no further description given.)
 
Reptile
Published Description        Qty                  Popular Name
Reptiles                                  Multiple        ?
(The paper states crocodiles and sea turtle separately, so it is assumed that this is a refence to other reptiles.)
 
Terrestrial Vertebrates (1)
Published Description        Qty                  Popular Name
Heteromyid Rodents            2                      Kangaroo rat/mice
Cricetid                                  1                        Voles & hamsters
Insectivores                          2                        Insectivore (very broad group)
Moschid camel                     1                        Camel?
Several reptiles                     multiple           ?                                 
 
Miocene Pollen
      Dominating the assemblage
Published Description        Popular Name
Quercus                                 Oak
Ulmus                                    Elm
Chenopodiaceae                   Grass
Graminae                              Grass
Cyperaceae misopores       Sedge
      Lesser populations
Carya                                      Hickory
Liquidambar                        Sweetgum
Polypodiaceae                       Ferns



​References
  1. Pratt, Ann E.; Petkewich, Richard M.; Fossil Vertebrates From The Marks Head Formation (Early Miocene) of Southeastern Georgia; Presented at Georgia Journal of Science Meeting, 9:00 am, 29/April/1989, Section III, Earth Sciences, A-Geology, Georgia Journal of Science, 471, Pg.20.
  2. Josey, Henry N.; 18C The Marks Head Formation.
  3. Hubiak, L. M. 1999. Faunal Analysis and Paleoecology of Miocene Fossil Fish from Porters Landing, Effingham County, Georgia. Legacy ETDs.
  4. Darrell, James H.; A Preliminary Palynological Investigation of the Marks Formation (Miocene), Effingham County, GA, 9:15 am, 29/April/1989, Section III, Earth Sciences, A-Geology, Georgia Journal of Science, 471, Pg.20.
  5. RESOURCES | paleoassocga