Around 500,000 year ago , some horses , sloths , and armadillo had a very bad mean solar day — they fell into a sinkhole in what is now Florida and remained there until two men observe their bones in 2022 .
Fossil hunters Robert Sinibaldi and Joseph Branin discovered 552 exceptionally preserved animal fogey while diving in the Steinhatchee River . The findings , detailed in astudypublished late last year inFossil Studies , exuviate light on a little - known period of the Pleistocene glass ages called the middle Irvingtonian .
“ It ’s like dive in coffee , ” Sinibaldi said of the murky Steinhatchee River in astatementfrom the Florida Museum of Natural History . Branin first spotted cavalry teeth , which then led to the discovery of many other specimens , including the skull of a tapir ( enceinte bull - influence herbivorous mammals still alive today ) . “ We get it on we had an important site , but we did n’t know how significant , ” Sinibaldi added .
Some of the Holmesina fossils recently recovered from the Steinhatchee River.© Florida Museum photo by Kristen Grace
According to the study , the unfortunate creature forgather their dying in a sinkhole , where their remains were keep up under layers of accumulated deposit for C of thousands of years . Back then , the Steinhatchee River in all likelihood was n’t where it is today . As erosion reshaped its course , the river eventually clash with the sink , wash the fossils into the riverbed .
Sinibaldi and Branin bow their findings to the Florida Museum of Natural History , where paleontologists confirm their exciting line .
“ The fossil record everywhere , not just in Florida , is lacking the interval that the land site is from — the center Irvingtonian North American state mammal age , ” say Rachel Narducci , vertebrate palaeontology collections manager at the Florida Museum and a coauthor of the report . In fact , it ’s only the second known middle Irvingtonian site in Florida .
The fossilized lower jaw bone of a tapir. © Florida Museum photo by Kristen Grace
A want of fossil grounds from this unknown time geological period has left many questions unanswered about the evolutions of sure animals . For object lesson , Holmesina floridanus — now - extinct creatures that looked like large armadillos and consider an average of 150 pounds ( 68 kilograms)—evolved into a much larger species namedHolmesina septentrionalis , where individuals were around 475 pound sign ( 216 kg).Holmesina‘s ankle and foot bones from the Steinhatchee River fossil now render insight into this modulation , as they showcase features of bothH. floridanusandH. septentrionalis .
“ This apply us more clues into the fact that the anatomy kind of trailed behind the size of it step-up . So , they got bigger before the pattern of their bones changed , ” Narducci explained .
Sinibaldi and Branin ’s find also offers clues about what innovative - day Florida may have look like half a million years ago . An overwhelming majority of the dodo are of caballines , an former mathematical group of both naturalize and wild horse . Since horses evolve to be in open habitats , and given their prevalence within the Steinhatchee River fossils , the researcher suggest that Florida was also once an open landscape with few trees than today .
“ What was capital about the cavalry from this site is , for the first time , we had individuals that were complete enough to show us upper teeth , humbled teeth and the front incisors of the same person , ” said Richard Hulbert , the lead author on the report and a retired Florida Museum vertebrate paleontology collections manager . The wearing on well - preserved tooth could also provide clues on what kinds of plants these early horse were rust .
Additionally , an strange tapir skull uncovered along the riverbed might represent a young species — or could just be “ an oddball somebody of the population , ” Hulbert explain . “ We need more of the skeleton to firmly figure out what ’s going on with this tapir . ”
The determination connect a grow lean of vertebrate fossil sites in Florida discovered by hobby dodo hunters , spotlight the potential for successful quislingism between passionate amateurs and professional researcher .
FloridafossilsHorsesRivers
Daily Newsletter
Get the good tech , science , and culture news in your inbox daily .
tidings from the futurity , fork up to your nowadays .
You May Also Like
