My name is George Williams of Gainesville, Florida and am an avid fossil collector in this area of town. While I am an amateur in the field of paleontology, I have a lot of fun finding and identifying fossils, especially shark teeth.


My family and I live on the northwest side of town, in between several small creeks that are part of the Hogtown Creek Basin. After a heavy rain I head down to the streambeds to see what has turned up. Just looking on top of the rock "flows" (I do very little digging or sifting) usually turns up a multitude of fossils.


Gainesville is located on top of the Upper Eocene Ocala Limestone Ridge that was formed 38-54 million years ago and the Miocene to Lower Pliocene Hawthorne Formation that is 4-25 million years old.  Very rarely do I find fossils from the Oligocene Suwannee Formation. I find mostly marine fossils: shells, snails, bone,  echinoids, ray teeth and, of course, shark teeth. Recent screening of the sediments have also revealed numerous microfossil remains. During this geologic period North Central Florida was just rising from the sea. While we find a few terrene vertebrate remains from the Upper Miocene Alachua Formation in the creeks, to the west of town there  are sites which have many more fossils of land animals. Most of the paleontological digs the Florida State Museum conducts are located there, and are off limits to the casual collector.  However, many volunteers are needed for these extensive excavations, so please contact the museum if you are interested.


My work continues on the Listing of Fossil Sharks and Rays of the World. If you would to contribute a species list from your area, or have any questions, please contact me by e-mail. Of course, all contributors will receive acknowledgement in the introduction. You can download a more up to date .zip version (with index and timeline) in Word 7  format here.


If you would like to see some pictures of my visit to Dr. Gordon Hubbell's home and his display of shark teeth,  please click here.  Dr. Hubbell has the world's largest collection of giant fossil shark teeth, collected over many years.  Lucky for me he decided to retire here in Gainesville, where he still is the world's foremost authority on the larger fossil sharks.  His collection is awe inspiring, and paleontologists still consider him the best source of material and knowledge in this subject. He is still hard at work cleaning and researching teeth other collectors send him.



              We love to trade, and are very interested in shark teeth and echinoids. 

              Check out what I have to offer in exchange.  Feel free to contact me

               even if you would like to swap, or have some questions about

               this site, or would just like to visit Gainesville

Eocene and Miocene Fossils from the Creeks of Gainesville, Florida

HOGTOWN CREEK FOSSILS

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