Bringing Georgia's Natural History to Georgians
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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
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  • 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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7D; Xiphactinus vetus; 
The Bulldog Fish

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Imagine an angry, 4.5 meter (15 foot), fanged tarpon. This is another large, new species from Alabama and Georgia; discovered by David R Schwimmer, J.D. Stewart & G. Dent Williams.

Xiphactinus vetus (pronounced: Zee-fact-teen-us vee-tus), was a very close relative to the animal (X. audax) from Kansas illustrated here with my daughter. 

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Artist Quentin Lonon created the following images of a living Xiphactinus vetus swimming in our lost Cretaceous sea. The image set begins with the bird genus Hesperornis (meaning western bird) which is unreported from the fossil record of Georgia and Alabama, but is known to occur in the Western Interior Seaway. 

This was a large flightless bird but an active swimmer. Its wings had atrophied into stubs but its sideways facing feet made it a superb swimmer. It had a long beak complete with teeth. 

Xiphactinus vetus is seen stalking one from beneath the waves, and taking one in a successful hunt. 

There is no known reason why 
Hesperornis couldn't be discovered among Georgia's Cretaceous fossils.

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Perhaps the scent of blood in the water attracts the unwelcomed attention of a hungry shark.  

Sharks would have been major competitors, and in the scenes Quentin created, one shark makes an unsuccessful attack on our Xiphactinus vetus. Fast as the shark may be, it wasn’t fast enough. 


Xiphactinus vetus was built for great  bursts of speed. It was likely much faster than most sharks.




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It occurs in Georgia and Alabama. It is identified as a distinct species by elongated, curved, faceted teeth and distinct vertebra which the ancestor Xiphactinus audax lacked. (See images of the fossils below.)

Judging by the size of its teeth our local species, Xiphactinus vetus, was at least as large, or larger, than Xiphactinus audax. 

In life, Xiphactinus vetus would have been a formidable predator at least 4.5 meters or 15 feet long. 

It would have hunted with curved teeth were meant for seizing prey.



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Note: In a 2/June/2013 email Dr. Schwimmer reported the following; and I quote: “Xiphactinus vetus is also known in New Jersey and North Carolina; and, there are specimens I identified a few years ago from Wyoming (published in a New Mexico Museum Bulletin).”

Judging by the fossil record, Xiphactinus vetus would have occurred in some numbers in our coastal sea.

Reference:
Xiphactinus vetus and the Distribution of Xiphactinus Species in the Eastern United States. David R. Schwimmer, J.D. Dent and G. Dent Williams Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, Vol. 17, No.3, Sept. 1997. Society of Vertebrate Paleontology
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***
​​Note (15/July/2020);
So after detailed observations in micropaleontology, over years, Schwimmer learned that some of the fossils originally attributed to the Blufftown Formation actually came from the overlying Cusseta Sand or the mixed bed between the two.

11/June/2020 Note from Schwimmer: "...many of the fossils I attributed to the Blufftown back in the 80's and early 90's, actually come from the base of the overlying Cusseta Fm. Took me a lot of observation and some microfossil work to figure that the productive bed was actually the basal Cusseta with reworked Blufftown material." (Personal Communication)
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