Bringing Georgia's Natural History to Georgians
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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
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  • 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
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  • 11: A Whale For Georgia
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    • 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
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    • 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
  • Building This Site
    • Origins Of This Site
    • Contributing Artists
    • Black & White Sketches


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Section; 2A
Murray County
Stromatolites

​By Thomas Thurman

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In mid-January of 2019 Mary Bartell Parker of Murray County in north Georgia reported on Facebook’s Georgia’s Fossils Group that she thought she’d found stromatolites on her property and posted a few good pictures.
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​Stromatolites are known to occur in Georgia but they’re rare and while they’re mentioned in the literature, they’ve been little studied.
 
They’re among Earth’s oldest fossils and they’re still with us today. Living stromatolites can be observed in Shark Bay, Australia. Mrs. Parker’s Georgia’s stromatolites lived at least 440 million years ago, perhaps 500 million years ago, the sediments have yet to be confidently dated to either the Ordovician or the Cambrian.
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​To quote Wikipedia; "Stromatolites are layered mounds, columns, and sheet-like sedimentary rocks that were originally formed by the growth of layer upon layer of cyanobacteria, a single-celled photosynthesizing microbe."
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​Brad Deline, was the first professional to identify the specimens as stromatolites by Mrs. Parker’s post. Brad is an Associate Professor of Biology at the University of West Georgia, he suggested the source might be the Knox Formation which is mixed Cambrian and Ordovician material, still at least 440 million years old.
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Brad was kind enough to give us a wonderful explanation for stromatolites;
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“The key is looking at them from the side to see the internal structure. They produce very distinctive layers forming a mound as the cyanobacteria continues to grow. They’re essentially just sand bound together by bacterial goo.”
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“So the bacteria grow into a mat. When the tide come in it dumps sand on top of it, which blocks the light. The bacterial then seek out the light and establish a new mat above the sediment. Through this process they bind up and lightly cement the sand.”

​Pamela Gore, Professor of Geology at Georgia State University & Co-Author of Roadside Geology of Georgia confirmed Brad’s identification much to the joy of Mrs. Parker who owned a copy of Pamela’s book.

​Mary admitted that she’d been trying to ID the specimens for the better part of a year.
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Brad further explained that where the original stromatolites were relatively soft these fossils were now chert, and very hard. But the benefit is that the hard, rugged nature of chert means that samples endure.
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tellusmuseum.org/
Bill Montante with Tellus Science Museum observed;
“Cambrian stromatolites were discovered in a limestone formation north of Cave Springs, Ga during excavation for the beltway. Specimen is a 4 ft cube sitting at entrance to Tellus parking lot.”
Brad Deline shared a sentiment felt Montante and many others…
“There appears to be next to nothing written about most of the fossils of the Valley and Ridge part of Georgia/ Many different groups of invertebrate/microbial fossils. I have had this issue a few times when I found fossils in the area- I presented about a sponge a few years ago from NW Georgia when I realized that 1) none had been described and 2) there wasn't a fossil sponge expert to send them to.”

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Mrs. Parker soon took samples to Tellus Science Museum and upon inspection Ryan Roney, the Curator at Tellus, also confirmed them as Georgia stromatolites.  Ms. Parker was kind enough to donate five good samples to Tellus for further research.
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So the need for continued exploration, research and science continues Georgia despite scientific paleontological observations dating back to 1765 (William Bartram, Shell Bluff Fossils, see Section  13K of this website).
​As this website has struggled to convey, Georgia’s paleontology is a maddeningly complex subject.
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A note of thanks to Mrs. Mary Parker for sharing her find with us and donating samples to Tellus.
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Note from the author:
I’m simply not familiar with NW Georgia’s sediments and I’d welcome essays submitted, for possible publication on this website, over fossiliferous deposits or individual fossils collected. Such essays need to be well researched, observational and science based. Contact Thomas Thurman at GeorgiasFossils@aol.com for details.