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
Picture
Site Origins
This project began in 2008 as a grant application to the National Science Foundation’s Informal Science Education office to create a website over Georgia’s fossil record; a subject virtually unknown to Georgia’s science teachers. The proposal was submitted in 2009 and by early 2010 we had word that project wouldn’t be funded.

About 20 research papers from half a dozen professors and several publications of the former Georgia Geologic Survey formed a solid core of information. I decided to assemble it into a book and put together a book proposal; a sent out a call for additional research papers and soon had a great deal of published material to cover.

By 2011 I had a Letter of Intent to Publish from an academic press here in Georgia. By 2012 I had a Publishing Contract from the same, but because of the wealth of original artwork I had in hand, thanks to Georgia Southwestern’s Visual Arts Department, I had a rather steep $20,000.00 publication subvention to cover; funding which had to come from an outside source. The manuscript had to be finalized in 2013; publication was set for 2015.

As you will see in my bio, I’m not a professional paleontologist or geologist but an amateur, a natural history historian. By trade I am a diesel engine Partsman and Service Writer. Science education grants aren’t given to well-meaning, un-degreed amateurs who work blue-collar jobs.

By late 2014 it was obvious that funding for a book wasn’t available. I thanked academic publisher for his interest and began converting the manuscript into a website.

This website was published by myself on 26/December/2014; it came circle from the original concept for an Earth Science Education website.  

Professional Origins & Thanks
Many researchers and professors from several universities contributed papers, made suggestions, corrections, and generally advised me in the creations and completion of this work. Without their assistance this would not have been possible. I am grateful.

The great bulk of the information here has its roots in research started by the Georgia Geologic Survey for the benefit of all Georgians.

This work is intended as a tool in science education support. My hope is that other Georgia students won’t know the same gaps in their education I experienced as a 1980 graduate of public schools.

Toward that end I received the following email from Ms. Tina Perkins on January 27, 2012. Ms. Perkins is a 27 year veteran Georgia high school science teacher at Central High School in Macon, Georgia:

“I used a few sections of your fossil research in class to illustrate the point of how rich a fossil history Georgia has.  One of my students had looked on a site that stated that only a few Cretaceous fossils were known from the Mesozoic and no fossils from the Jurassic and Triassic.  Most fossils, it said, came from the Cenozoic.   He tried to find the site again, but he could not remember what he typed in for it to come up.” 

“They were also astounded as how many sites came up that disputed the age of fossils and claimed that all life was less than 12,000 years old.  We had some interesting discussions...”


Southern Education Desk;
Fusing Art and Science through Paleontological Illustration 
http://www.southerneddesk.org/?p=5542
When Yu Min Park at Georgia Public Broadcasting’s Southern Education Desk covered the original artwork of this project on their website I posted their article on my Facebook page and received the following comment from a friend of a friend:

13/Aug/2012 Hi Thomas - Thank you for sharing your information on Georgia's early history. We are homeschooling our three daughters and appreciate the graphics on the extinct creatures. Our perspective does not accept the timelines you provide, however, since we teach from a Creationist perspective - believing most of the enormous reptiles became extinct after the worldwide flood due to inability to survive the much drier atmospheric conditions…. Even so, we appreciate your work and pray that you will bring glory to the Creator as you 'unearth' more of His handiwork! Have a blessed week!



Contact;
Thomas Thurman
Email; GeorgiaFossils@aol.com