Charleston Center for Paleontology

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Charleston Center for Paleontology

We advance the unique paleontology of the Charleston Tri-County Area through research and conservation.

09/18/2026

This , we’re looking at another specimen of Smilodon, on display at the LaBrea Tar Pits and Museum. Upper canines could grow to ~7 inches in length and are believed to have been supported during growth by the deciduous (baby) canines. In fact, some specimens found at La Brea had both the baby and permanent upper canines positioned beside one another.

09/15/2026

Mako, the common name for sharks in the Isurus genus, is the Māori word for shark. Sharks were revered in Māori culture and were important both symbolically and for practical uses.

Teeth from Makos and Great Whites (Carcharodon carcharias) in particular were prized for use in jewelry and art.

09/11/2026

Lobocarcinus sismondai (previously known as Cancer sismondae) is a large marine crab found primarily in Europe that lived from the Oligocene to Pliocene.

The specimen pictured this is from the Oligocene of Italy and is on display at the Mace Brown Museum of Natural History.

09/04/2026

Want to see millions of years of whale evolution in minutes? The Flippers from Feet display at the Mace Brown Museum of Natural History shows the evolutionary changes from 48-million-year-old semi-aquatic whales with jointed limbs to modern day dolphin flippers.

Changes include loss of movable joints, flattening and shortening of arm bones, and wider finger bones.

08/28/2026

In addition to many taxa that we’ve covered previously, the Oligocene-aged Ashley and Chandler Bridge formations in the Charleston Embayment are rich with fossil remains from billfish – large marine fish known for their rostra (bills). While vertebrae and parhypurals or other neural or haemal spines are common finds (see our post last month), rostra can be found as well.

Fossils from several species in multiple genera including the Xiphiorhynchus and Aglyptorhynchus pictured this are recorded in the area. Both specimens are on display at the Mace Brown Museum of Natural History.

08/25/2026

Happy from the collections at the Mace Brown Museum of Natural History! This beautiful Ankylorhiza specimen (CCNHM 6923) is from the Chandler Bridge Formation in the Summerville area.

08/21/2026

This , we’re looking at the largest Oligocene-aged sirenian in South Carolina – Dioplotherium manigaulti – which was originally described based on a partial jaw with tusk from the Charleston area.

Unlike extant sirenians, the fossil record shows that multiple species of extinct sirenians co-existed in the same communities. It is thought that these communities may have avoided competition over food resources through partition feeding – with smaller species feeding on smaller types of seagrass and those in shallow areas, and larger species with larger tusks, like Dioplotherium manigaulti, consuming the larger seagrasses or more deeply buried rhizomes (which tusks may have helped uproot).

The specimen pictured is on display at the Mace Brown Museum of Natural History.

08/14/2026

Kogiopsis is an extinct genus of pygmy s***m whale that inhabited the southeastern U.S. from the mid Miocene to early Pliocene, and is known primarily by its large, rootless teeth.

Kogiopsis teeth are commonly found in Florida, where the genus was first described based on a single, incomplete mandible with teeth.

Outside of Florida, Kogiopsis teeth are most commonly found in the Carolinas, including in the Yorktown Formation - an incredibly diverse Pliocene aged marine deposit found in multiple states along the East Coast, but perhaps best known from the Lee Creek Mine in North Carolina.

In fact, this location produced the associated Kogiopsis teeth shown this , which can be seen on display at the Mace Brown Museum of Natural History (CCNHM 215).

08/07/2026

If you follow our content, you’ve seen the “Cookie Cutter” shark. But did you know there is a “Cookie Cutter” cat as well?

Meet Xenosmilus hodsonae, a saber-toothed ambush predator that inhabited the savannahs and woodlands of Florida in the early Pleistocene.

While not the only saber-toothed cat with serrated teeth, Xenosmilus was unique in that it was missing a typical dental feature – a gap called a diastema between its upper canines and incisors – that resulted in a single continuous cutting edge.

Additionally, Xenosmilus’ large incisors were positioned in a semi-circular shape and, unlike most saber-toothed cats whose strongest bite forces occur at their carnassial teeth, Xenosmilus’ occurred along those anterior teeth. This led early researchers to theorize that it used its upper teeth to remove large, semi-circular chunks of flesh from its prey, and earned it the “Cookie Cutter” nickname.

The Xenosmilus shown this is on display at the Mace Brown Museum of Natural History.

07/31/2026

Catsharks are small, bottom feeding sharks with elongated “cat-like” eyes. They have a long presence in the fossil record and are known from locations including the P*e Dee (Late Cretaceous), Harleyville (Eocene) and Summerville (Oligocene & younger) here in South Carolina. In fact, catshark teeth from two of these sites made news in recent years.

In 2020, researchers from the Horry County Museum and South Carolina State Museum added several species to the state fossil record that were previously unknown in South Carolina. These species came from the P*edee Formation and included one catshark, Scyliorhinus ivagrantae.

In 2022, researchers from the South Carolina State Museum, University of South Carolina Aiken, and McWane Science Center in Alabama named a new species of catshark from the Oligocene-aged Ashley Formation in Summerville.

Using matrix collected from large fossil excavations from 2007 to 2015, the researchers discovered and named a new species, Scyliorhinus weemsi.

The catshark tooth pictured this is from the third mentioned location, Harleyville.

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Charleston, SC
29401, 29403, 29405, 29407, 29409, 29412, 29414, 29424, 29425, 29455, 29492

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http://charlestoncenterforpaleo.org/

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