Exploring Georgia's Fossil Record & Our History of Paleontology
  • Items of Interest
    • Presentation; Oaky Woods Stratigraphy
    • I, Periarchus (A Fossil's Tale)
    • Coastal Plain Correlation Chart
    • Black & White Sketches
    • Contributing Artists
    • Public Fossil Locations >
      • South Houston County Fossils
      • Updated; Islands of the Savannah River
    • 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
      • Thomas Thurman, Warner Robins, GA
      • Bill Christy; Kamin Performance Minerals Fossils
    • Origins Of This Site
    • Georgia Fossils in the Smithsonian
  • Education Material
    • Georgia's State Fossil; Shark Teeth
    • Taking Georgia's Paleontology To Georgia's Classrooms
    • Georgiacetus Presentation; A Whale for Georgia
    • SW GA RESA 2018 Talk
    • Library & School Presentations
    • An Introduction To Fossils; Presentation
    • Georgia's Fossils Presentation; 500 million years
    • Free Fossils for GA Science Teachers; Crassostrea gigantissima
    • Georgia College Natural History Museum
  • Georgia's Lost Meteorite
  • Evolution in Georgia's Fossil Record
  • 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
  • 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 (Terrible Crocodile)
    • 7I; The Blufftown Formation
  • 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
    • 12D: Chrysocetus
    • 12E: The Redmond Mandible of Albany Ga
    • 12F; Houston County 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
    • 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
  • 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
  • 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
  • 19: Pliocene Epoch; 5.3 to 2.5 Million years Ago
  • *NEW* 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
  • *NEW* 20J; Watkins Quarry Pleistocene Vertebrates, Glynn County, GA
  • 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

7: Cretaceous Georgia,
Georgia's Dinosaurs & More 
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The Cretaceous Period began 145.5 million years ago and ended 65.5 million years ago, it was generally warm to very warm and saw high sea levels.

High sea levels were the norm for this period in Earth's history, but as always, the climate fluctuated and sea levels both rose and fell. 

Dinosaurs dominated as the terrestrial animals and are present in Georgia. For most of the Cretaceous, the poles were probably ice free. New groups of mammals, birds and flowering plants emerged and proliferated.  

During the long warm phases of global climates, Georgia’s coastline stretched roughly along the modern Fall Line from Columbus, through Macon and on to Augusta.

To the west of Georgia and covering most of the Mid-Western United States was the Western Interior Seaway. Georgia sat at a crossroads between the Western Interior Seaway, the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean.

Along this lost Georgia coastline, and in our rivers were turtles, there were huge, terrible crocodiles up to 25 feet long and perhaps capable of taking dinosaurs. The sea covering South Georgia was an equally dangerous place full of large predators including giant reptiles and many species of large sharks and hungry bony fish.

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In several West Georgia and East Alabama locations the distinctive oyster Exogyra ponderosa can be collected, sometimes in masses.
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