Bringing Georgia's Natural History to Georgians
  • Natural History & Geology
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      • Coastal Plain Core Logs by Paul F. Huddlestun
    • Presentation; Oaky Woods Stratigraphy
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    • I, Periarchus (A Fossil's Tale)
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      • South Houston County Fossils
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    • My Field Kit; What You Need In The Field
    • Meet Crassostrea gigantissima, Georgia's Historic Giant Oyster
    • Georgiacetus Presentation; A Whale for Georgia
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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 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
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    • Origins Of This Site
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7A: Georgia’s Pterosaur, 83 million years ago
​

By Thomas Thurman

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​Flying reptiles are rare everywhere but were unknown in Georgia until May 1985, when David Schwimmer from Columbus State University, Kevin Padian from University of California in Berkley and Alfred Woodhead from Martin Army Hospital at Fort Benning, Georgia collaborated to share this unique discovery.

The finds were two isolated bones from deep inside the U.S. Army Base; Fort Benning in West Georgia. The partial bones were recovered two years apart.

When the pterosaurs flew, this would have been an open marine environment. Both fossils came from the Eutaw Formation, which is known for shark’s teeth and vertebrate bones. 


These images were created in 2012 by artist Hasani Jones at Georgia Southwestern State University. They represent a pterodactyl of the genus Pteranodon, likely a larger animal that either of the Georgia specimens but certainly present in North America at the same time and very well-known from the fossil record. This genus is known to occur in Alabama, so was very likely present in Georgia as well, though no fossils are confirmed from our state. Hasani represented an adult male, females were a bit smaller. Pteranodons are among the larger pterosaurs. 
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Pterosaurs are not dinosaurs but flying reptiles and the oldest flying vertebrates. They emerged into the fossil record during the Late Triassic (about 220 million years ago) and ranged in size from the smallest known adult Nemicolopterus crypticus with a wingspan of about 10 inches, or the size of a mocking bird, to the largest pterosaur Quetzalcoatlus with a wingspan of a small plane. 

These were active flyers, not just gliders. As a flight adaptation, all pterosaur bones are air filled, thin walled and very lightweight in structure. Flight is achieved through highly modified front limbs covered in three different layers of skin. Pterosaurs were also quadrupeds, meaning that they walked on all four legs; their front legs were adapted into wings. In the case of the two Georgia pterosaur finds, both bones were seemingly partial, isolated examples of phalanx wing bones.


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Our pterosaur lived about 83 million years ago and from their positions in the stratigraphy both fossils are probably pterodactyls; which are the later, more advanced of the two pterosaur sub-orders. The pterodactyls emerged during the Middle Jurassic (about 167 million years ago) and are characterized by short tails. Many lacked teeth and had well developed, in some cases elaborate, crests on their heads.

Sample 1 is undoubtedly an incomplete wing phalanx consisting of 6.5 inches of preserved length, part of which is only preserved by impression. Which position it held in the wing is unknown.

Sample 2 is more difficult to diagnose. It is only an internal mold of the original bone with a few bits of bone still clinging to the matrix; again its position in the wing is unknown. It is 8.94 inches long. Its dimensions are unusual for a phalanx bone but this may be an artifact of preservation. By the few actual bits of bone remaining, the original was clearly very thin walled and this is typical a pterosaur. (8)




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Note; in a 02/June/2013 email Dr. Schwimmer reports the following: “Since the paper in 1985 I found a third bone from the same site, same size animal.  I now believe all three bones were from a single individual.”

On 24/April/2020 David Schwimmer added a further observation; "
I can add one more note: the larger bone in the original paper is the metacarpal IV from the same wing. The other two bones are the 2nd and 3rd phalanges. Cheers."

Paleobiology Database (paleobiodb.org)
A wonderful online tool for research and public use; assembled by a team led by Dr. Mark Uhen, the Paleobiology Database can be used to see the distribution and frequency of species; both vertebrate and invertebrate, I narrowed the search geographically to Georgia. 

Using the PBDB Navigator, one can browse by taxa and other terms. Here I shared listing of Eutaw Formation sharks reported in 2001 by Gerard Case and David Schwimmer from Ochilee Creek in Southwest Georgia near the Alabama line. These animals lived between 85.8 and 70.6 million years ago. And would be about the same age as Georgia’s pterosaur finds.

Ochilee Creek, Eutaw Formation in Georgia 
Scientific Name                                Common Name
Borodinopristis                                Sawfish
Columbusia                                       Shark
Chiloscyllium                                   Bamboo Shark
Cretodus borodini                           Mackerel Shark family
Cretolamna appendiculata            Mackerel Shark family
Erguitaia                                           Ray or Skate
Hybodus                                            Hump Toothed Shark
Ischyrhiza                                         Sawfish
Ischyrhiza mira                                Sawfish
Lissodus babulskii                           Sawfish
Microdontaspis                                Carpet Shark/Wobbegong
Protoplatyrhina renae                   Skate
Pseudohypolophus                          Guitarfish
Ptychodus mortoni                          Extinct Shark (ate mollusks?)
Ptychotrygon                                   Sawfish 
Ptychotrygon triangularis             Sawfish
Scapanorhynchus rhaphiodon      Spadesnout or Goblin Shark
Squalicorax falcatus                       Mackerel Shark family
Squatina hassei                                Angel Shark

Source; 
Stratigraphy  Eutaw Fm.
Time frame; Early Santonian - Middle Santonian
Reference;
G. R. Case and D. R. Schwimmer. 2001. A New Selachian Fauna From the Eutaw Formation (Upper Cretaceous/Early to Middle Santonian) of Chattahoochee County, Georgia. Palaeontographica Abteilung A 261(Lfg. 4-6):83-102


These images were created in 2012 by artist Hasani Jones at Georgia Southwestern State University. They represent a pterodactyl of the genus Pteranodon, likely a larger animal that either of the Georgia specimens but certainly present in North America at the same time and very well-known from the fossil record. This genus is known to occur in Alabama, so was very likely present in Georgia as well, though no fossils are confirmed from our state. Hasani represented an adult male, females were a bit smaller. Pteranodons are among the larger pterosaurs. 
 

References:
First Pterosaur Records from Georgia: Open Marine Facies, Eutaw Formation (Santonian). David R. Schwimmer, Kevin Padian and Alfred B. Woodhead. Journal of Paleontology, V.59, No. 3, P.674-676, May 1985