Bringing Georgia's Natural History to Georgians
  • Natural History & Geology
    • Podcast; The Tivola Whale
    • Coastal Plain Correlation Chart
    • GA Paleo Research by Paul F. Huddlestun PhD >
      • Late Eocene & Older... Coastal Plain Stratigraphy
      • Washington County Core Logs By Paul Huddlestun
      • Coastal Plain Core Logs by Paul F. Huddlestun
    • Presentation; Oaky Woods Stratigraphy
    • Physiographic Map of Georgia
    • Fossils of Oaky Woods
    • Collections & Stewardship of Georgia’s Fossils
    • I, Periarchus (A Fossil's Tale)
    • 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
      • Bill Christy; Kamin Performance Minerals Fossils
    • Public Fossil Locations >
      • South Houston County Fossils
      • Updated; Islands of the Savannah River
    • Georgia Fossils in the Smithsonian
  • Education Material
    • My Field Kit; What You Need In The Field
    • Meet Crassostrea gigantissima, Georgia's Historic Giant Oyster
    • Georgiacetus Presentation; A Whale for Georgia
    • The Natural History & Fossils Record of Houston County, GA
    • Evolution in Georgia's Fossil Record
    • Georgia's State Fossil; Shark Teeth
    • Georgia's Paleontology For Georgia's Classrooms
    • SW GA RESA 2018 Talk
    • Library & School Presentations
    • An Introduction To Fossils; Presentation
    • Georgia's Fossils Presentation; 500 million years
    • Georgia College Natural History Museum
  • Meteorites
    • Did I Find A Meteorite?
    • Georgia's Lost Meteorite
    • Georgia's Witnessed Meteorite Falls
    • The Sardis Iron, Georgia's Largest Meteorite
  • 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
  • Building This Site
    • Origins Of This Site
    • Contributing Artists
    • Black & White Sketches

7F: Marine Reptiles

Picture
Mosasaurs 
Scientists at Columbus State University have also identified fossils of at least two families of successful ocean going predatory reptiles from sediments in Georgia and Alabama; these are mosasaurs and plesiosaurs.

Mosasaurs and plesiosaurs were not dinosaurs. Dinosaurs are defined as land animals whose legs are vertically beneath them, not splayed to the sides like a lizard’s or an alligator’s.

Most of the mosasaurs and plesiosaurs finds from Georgia have been single bones which don’t allow for identification beyond saying it belong to a mosasaur or a plesiosaur, however sometimes scientists get lucky and find enough material to properly identify a species and confirm its presence, such was the case for the mosasaur monster genus Tylosaurus which has been confirmed in Georgia.
       
Mosasaurs had large heads, short necks and long tails. They were thought to swim alligator-like or ell-like until recently when it was shown in a 2010 research paper published by the Public Library of Science (www.plos.org) that one genus from Kansas Platecarpus tympaniticus possessed a fluke.

Current thought is that most mosasaurs including Tylosaurus would have also possessed a fluke.

Mosasaurs are related to lizards and snakes, closely related to modern monitor lizards. The mosasaur Tylosaurus was a large animal, specimens have been recovered which exceeded 45 feet in length. Mosasaurs in general are known from both deeper water environments and shallow coastal waters.

The genus Tylosaurus seems to have preferred shallow, coastal waters. There is a specimen on display at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History which contained the last meal of a plesiosaur in its stomach; it was discovered in 1918 by Charles H. Sternberg.

Mosasaurs feature importantly in the Bone Wars between the two famous early American paleontologists Edward Drinker Cope and Othniel Charles Marsh where they repeated re-assigned each other’s finds.

The images of the mosasaur Tylosaurus were created by the Artist Jordan Walker at Georgia Southwestern State University. Jordan has shown a hunting Tylosaurus with a fluke, or tail fin, which is accurate. Coelacanths are also shown in the image, which were present in Georgia’s Late Cretaceous sea but to date only the giant Megalocoelacanthus, which was too large a meal even for the giant Tylosaurus, is known to occur in Georgia. Jordan has also shown a sea turtle as prey, which is likely. 

Picture
Picture
Picture
Plesiosaurs
Plesiosaurs are an opposite approach to hunting in the sea but can also be very large animals. They had small heads, very long necks and short tails; they swam by flapping their four large flippers and “flying” through the water. 

Several species have been identified in Western Alabama. Georgia has produced several plesiosaur fossils, but not yet enough material from any single individual to confirm a species. 

These are large animals; globally, the smallest known plesiosaur was about 2 meters (6.5ft) long with the largest being 20 meters (65ft) long.
 
Felicity Leckman at Georgia Southwestern created these two imaginative pages showing a plesiosaur during a successful hunt in Georgia’s Cretaceous sea, first missing an escaping ammonite, only to capture a passing saber-toothed Enchodus petrosus. I appreciate her participation in the project.

References:
Marine reptile fossil information on the species level comes from personal communications with David Schwimmer though it is mention in published reports:

Late Cretaceous Fish From The Blufftown Formation (Campanian) in Western Georgia. Gerard R. Case and David R. Schwimmer. Journal of Paleontology Vol.62 No. 2, 1988 The Paleontological Society

Picture
Picture