Jefferson County, Florida paleontological sites

The Jefferson County, Florida paleontological sites are assemblages of Mid-Miocene to Late Pleistocene vertebrates from Jefferson County, Florida, United States.

Jefferson County during the Miocene would have a shoreline dividing the county with land occupying the northern half.

Florida during the Miocene

Florida during the Pleistocene

Age

Era: Neogene
Period: Miocene to Pleistocene, ~23.03 Mya—11,000 years ago. (calculates to a period of approximately 22.92 million years).
Faunal stage: Clarendonian through early Rancholabrean

Sites

Ashville site (Miocene) Time period: ~13.5—12.7 Mya.^[1]
Aucilla River site (Pleistocene) Time period: ~126,000—11,000 years ago. The Aucilla site specimens were discovered by amateur paleontologist Dr. Richard Ohmes of Bremerton, Washington in 1969.^[2]
Coordinates: 30.1°N 83.9°W / 30.1; -83.9
Wacissa River site (Pleistocene) Time period: ~126,000—11,000 years ago. Collected by R. Alexon, B. Mathen, R. Gingery in October 1981; in shallow water. Specimens reposited in the Florida Museum of Natural History.^[3]
Coordinates: 30.4°N 83.9°W / 30.4; -83.9

Ashland site = ASH. Aucilla River site = ARS. Wacissa River site = WRS.

Reptiles

• Emydidae (turtle) WRS
• Geochelone (tortoise) ARS
• Alligator WRS

Birds

• Grus americana (whooping crane) ARS

Mammals

• Artiodactyla (deer-like) ASH, ARS
• Bison antiquus (bison) WRS
• Calippus proplacidus ASH
• Camelops (camel) ARS
• Equus (horse) ARS, WRS
• Hemiauchenia (camel) WRS
• Hippotherium (horse) ASH
• Megalonyx (ground sloth) ARS
• Mammut (American mastodon) ARS
• Menoceratinae (rhinoceros)
• Tapirus (tapir) ARS
• Odocoileus virginianus (deer-like) WRS
• Palaeolama (llama) WRS

References

1. R. C. Hulbert. 1988. Bulletin of the Florida State Museum, Biological Sciences 33(3)
2. Paleobiology Database Aucilla River collection
3. Authority: S. D. Webb, J. T. Milanich, R. Alexon and J. S. Dunbar. 1984. A Bison antiquus kill site, Wacissa River, Jefferson County, Florida . American Antiquity 49(2):384-392

• Texas A&M Univdersity
• Webb, S.D. 2000. Two cycles of Late Pleistocene sinkhole filling in the middle Aucilla River, Jefferson County, Florida, pp. 142–153, in W. Schmidt, J. Lloyd, and C. Collier (eds), The Wakulla Springs- Woodville Karst Plain Symposium, Florida Geological Survey Special Publication No. 46.