Polk County, Florida paleontological sites

The Polk County paleontological sites are assemblages of Early Miocene to Late Pleistocene vertebrates occurring in Polk County, Florida, United States.

Polk County during the Miocene with most of the county as dry land.
Interglacial Florida during the Miocene.
Florida (glacial) during the Late Pleistocene 2 million to 10,000 years ago.

Age

Era: Neogene
Period: Miocene to Pleistocene, ~17.7—1.5 Mya. (calculates to a period of approximately 16.2 million years).
Faunal stage: Hemingfordian through early Clarendonian
Geological Formation: Bone Valley Formation.

Sites

Polk County can boast more individual fossil recovery sites than any other Florida county due to the phosphate mining concerns. Bone Valley Formation is a prime geologic formation. Some of these sites are: Agricola Road (AEO),[1] Agrico Pierce Mine (AEO), American Agricultural Chemical Company Mine, Brewster Phosphate Mine, Fort Meade Mine,[2] Kingsford Mine, Phosphoria Mine, Fort Green Mine, Payne Creek Mine, and Palmetto Mine.
Coordinates: 27.9°N 81.8°W / 27.9; -81.8

Specimens

Reptiles

  • Caretta caretta (loggerhead sea turtle)
  • Chelonia (green sea turtle)
  • Gavialosuchus americana (American crocodile)
  • Lepidochelys and L. sensu lato (ridley sea turtle)

Mammals

Eremotherium

Notation

The taxa listed within this article were compiled from numerous collections within Paleobiology Database . authorized by John Alroy, Ph.D.. Further documentation on these genera and species are available.

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References

  1. X. Wang, R. H. Tedford, and B. E. Taylor. 1999. Phylogenetic systematics of the Borophaginae (Carnivora: Canidae). Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 243:1-392
  2. Uhen, Mark D., Collection authority and researcher, George Mason University, Assistant Term Professor, Evolution of cetaceans and other marine mammals
  • Evolution of River Dolphins
  • G. S. Morgan. 1994. Miocene and Pliocene marine mammal faunas from the Bone Valley Formation of central Florida. Contributions in Marine Mammal Paleontology Honoring Frank C. Whitmore Jr., Proceedings of the San Diego Society of Natural History 29:239-268
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