Cutler Fossil Site

Last updated

The Cutler Fossil Site (8DA2001) is a sinkhole near Biscayne Bay in Palmetto Bay, Florida, which is south of Miami. The site has yielded bones of Pleistocene animals and bones as well as artifacts of Paleo-Indians and people of the Archaic period.

Contents

Discovery and excavation

The presence of fossils in a sinkhole on the Charles Deering Estate was discovered in 1979 by people searching for wood to use as knife handles. They took some unusually hard pieces they found to an archaeologist, who identified them as fossil horse teeth. The discovery was not publicized until an archaeological excavation could be mounted in 1985, but in the meantime, an unauthorized collector had dug pits in the sinkhole, removed fossils and artifacts, and disturbed contexts. Later, most of the fossils and artifacts removed by the collector were recovered.

The Deering Estate protested designation of the sinkhole as a "historically significant site", which would have protected the area from development. Eventually, the site was acquired by Miami-Dade County. It now is part of the Charles Deering Estate Park. [1] [2] [3]

The Cutler Fossil Site is located in a sinkhole on the Miami Rock Ridge, a karstitic limestone formation running near the coast in Miami-Dade County. The ridge at the site is approximately 5 metres (16 ft) above the current sea level, and less than a kilometer from Biscayne Bay.

In the late Pleistocene the area was 100 metres (330 ft) or more above sea level, and many kilometers from the ocean. The sinkhole is approximately 8 metres (26 ft) by 10 metres (33 ft) in size. The pre-excavation soil surface in the sinkhole was about 7 feet (2.1 m) below the ground surrounding the sinkhole. Cores indicate that the fossil layer in the sinkhole is at least 4 metres (13 ft) deep, extending well below the water table. [4] [5]

The Cutler Fossil Site was excavated in 1985 and 1986, with funding from the owners of the Deering Estate. The excavation was led by Robert S. Carr of the Dade County Historic Preservation Division, with help from the Archaeological and Historical Conservancy and the Florida Museum of Natural History. A grid of 32 1-meter squares was established, and each square was excavated to just above the water table, approximately 6 feet (1.8 m) below the original surface. Recent disturbances to the soil were up to 2 feet (0.61 m) deep, and had to be removed before controlled excavation could proceed. [6] [7] [8]

Animal fossils

Thousands of fossil bones found in the sinkhole represent 47 mammal species (of which 16 are extinct, and another three locally extinct), 51 bird species (seven extinct), nine reptile species, seven amphibian species, and five fish species. The mix of species represented in the sinkhole suggests that during the late Pleistocene, it held standing water for at least part of the year, and was close to hardwood hammocks, pinelands, marshes, grasslands, and the sea coast. Pleistocene megafauna represented in the sinkhole include tapirs, horses, Columbian mammoth, American mastodon, camels ( Paleolama and Hemiauchenia ), Bison antiquus , dire wolf, spectacled bears ( Tremarctos floridanus and Tremarctos ornatus ), Florida (or American) lion ( Panthera atrox ), a saber-toothed cat ( Smilodon fatalis), and jaguar. Birds represented in the sinkhole include an extinct caracara ( Milvago reardi), and an extinct hawk-eagle ( Spizaetus grinnelli), as well as the California condor. The sinkhole was probably used at times as a den by dire wolves and by jaguars. The bones of 42 individual dire wolves, mostly juveniles, have been recovered from the sinkhole. [9] [4]

Human remains and artifacts

Human bones, teeth, and artifacts were found in association with the bones of Pleistocene animals at the sinkhole. As simple proximity of bones does not prove that humans were contemporaries of Pleistocene animals at the Cutler site, evidence of human modification of animal bones was sought. Approximately 800 bones and fragments that had been burned were identified. Natural fires in the sinkhole were unlikely, and Carr argues that the burned bones resulted from human action. Most of the burned bones came from animals that remain extant in Florida, but some were from a mammoth, from the extinct armadillo Dasypus bellus , a paleolama, and a horse. Some burned bones were also from either a coyote (a species that after dying out at the end of the Pleistocene, has returned to Florida only in the last century) or a domestic dog.

Artifacts recovered from the same layers include marine shells modified as tools, and a number of stone tools. Both local limestone and imported chert were used for tools. The chert has been identified as coming from quarries in central Florida. Projectile points from the sinkhole have been classified as Bolen Beveled, Dalton, and Greenbriar, dated to 10,000 to 12,000 years ago. [10]

Human bones and teeth from at least five individuals were found in the Cutler sinkhole. Some of the individuals appear to have been buried in graves. Three of the individuals were adults, including an older male and a presumed female. Another individual was a child of three to four years of age. Some of the human bones had been burnt, raising the possibility of cremation or cannibalism. What are believed to be Paleo-Indian hearths were found at the same level as the Paleo-Indian artifacts. Radiocarbon dating of two samples of charcoal from those hearths yielded a mean calibrated age of 10,875 Before Present (9320 BCE). [11]

Notes

  1. ↑ Carr 1986b
  2. ↑ Carr 2012: 29-31, 45
  3. ↑ "Fossil Site's Owners Fight Preservation". Sun Sentinel. October 16, 1986. Retrieved 24 January 2013.
  4. 1 2 Wheeler: Section E, Page 6
  5. ↑ Carr 2012: 31, 33-34
  6. ↑ Carr 1986a
  7. ↑ Carr 2012: 30-31
  8. ↑ Martinez
  9. ↑ Carr 2012: 32, 34, 42-43
  10. ↑ Carr 2012: 34-37
  11. ↑ Carr 2012: 39-42

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bilzingsleben (Paleolithic site)</span>

Bilzingsleben is a former stone quarry in Thuringia, Germany, notable for its wealth of palaeolithic human fossils and artifacts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Florida Museum of Natural History</span> Natural history museum in Florida, United States

The Florida Museum of Natural History (FLMNH) is Florida's official state-sponsored and chartered natural history museum. Its main facilities are located at 3215 Hull Road on the campus of the University of Florida in Gainesville.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Għar Dalam</span> Cave and archaeological site in Malta

Għar Dalam is a 144 metre long phreatic tube and cave, or cul-de-sac, located in the outskirts of Birżebbuġa, Malta. The cave contains the bone remains of animals that were stranded and subsequently became extinct in Malta at the end of the Last Glacial Maximum. It has lent its name to the Għar Dalam phase in Maltese prehistory, and is viewed as one of Malta's most important national monuments. Pottery similar to that found in Stentinello was found at Għar Dalam, but lacking details such as stamp decorations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Folsom tradition</span> Culture that originated from North America

The Folsom tradition is a Paleo-Indian archaeological culture that occupied much of central North America from c. 10800 BCE to c. 10200 BCE. The term was first used in 1927 by Jesse Dade Figgins, director of the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. The discovery by archaeologists of projectile points in association with the bones of extinct Bison antiquus, especially at the Folsom site near Folsom, New Mexico, established much greater antiquity for human residence in the Americas than the previous scholarly opinion that humans in the Americas dated back only 3,000 years. The findings at the Folsom site have been called the "discovery that changed American archaeology."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Columbian mammoth</span> Extinct species of mammoth that inhabited North America

The Columbian mammoth is an extinct species of mammoth that inhabited the Americas as far north as the Northern United States and as far south as Costa Rica during the Pleistocene epoch. The Columbian mammoth descended from Eurasian mammoths that colonised North America during the Early Pleistocene around 1.5-1.3 million years ago, and later experienced hybridisation with the woolly mammoth lineage. The Columbian mammoth was among the last mammoth species, and the pygmy mammoths evolved from them on the Channel Islands of California. The closest extant relative of the Columbian and other mammoths is the Asian elephant.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles Deering Estate</span> United States historic place

Charles Deering Estate was the Florida home of Charles Deering until 1927 when he died at the estate.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vero man</span> Late Pleistocene human fossil in Florida, USA

Vero Man refers to a set of fossilized human bones found near Vero, Florida, in 1915 and 1916. The human bones were found in association with those of Pleistocene animals. Pleistocene dates range from 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago. The suggestion that humans might have been present in Florida during the Pleistocene was controversial at the time and most of the contemporary archaeologists did not accept that the Vero fossils could be that old.

The Page–Ladson archaeological and paleontological site (8JE591) is a deep sinkhole in the bed of the karstic Aucilla River that has stratified deposits of late Pleistocene and early Holocene animal bones and human artifacts. The site was the first pre-Clovis site discovered in southeastern North America; radiocarbon evidence suggests that the site dates from 14,200 to 14,550 BP. These dates are roughly 1,000 to 1,500 years before the advent of the Clovis culture. Early dates for Page–Ladson challenge theories that humans quickly decimated large game populations in the area once they arrived.

Robert (Bob) S. Carr is an American archaeologist and the current executive director of The Archaeological and Historical Conservancy, Inc. He specializes in Southeastern archaeology, with particular emphasis on archaeology in Florida. He has also conducted fieldwork in the Bahamas.

Devil's Lair is a single-chamber cave with a floor area of around 200 m2 (2,200 sq ft) that formed in a Quaternary dune limestone of the Leeuwin–Naturaliste Ridge, 5 km (3.1 mi) from the modern coastline of Western Australia. The stratigraphic sequence in the cave floor deposit consists of 660 cm (260 in) of sandy sediments, with more than 100 distinct layers, intercalated with flowstone and other indurated deposits. Excavations have been made in several areas of the cave floor. Since 1973, excavations have been concentrated in the middle of the cave, where 10 trenches have been dug. Archaeological evidence for intermittent human occupation extends down about 350 cm (140 in) to layer 30, with hearths, bone, and stone artefacts found throughout. The site provides evidence of human habitation of Southwest Australia 50,000 years before the present day.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Melbourne Bone Bed</span> Pleistocene fossil and archaeological site in Florida

Melbourne Bone Bed is a paleontological site located at Crane Creek in Melbourne, in the U.S. state of Florida. This site contains fossils from the Late Pleistocene period 20,000 to 10,000 years before present. The fossils include extinct animals such as varieties of camels, dire wolves, Florida cave bears, giant armadillos, giant beavers, giant bison, giant ground sloths, mammoths, mastodons, saber-toothed cats and tapirs.

<i>Tremarctos floridanus</i> Extinct species of bear

Tremarctos floridanus, occasionally called the Florida spectacled bear, Florida cave bear, or rarely Florida short-faced bear, is an extinct species of bear in the family Ursidae, subfamily Tremarctinae. T. floridanus was widespread in the Southeastern United States during the Rancholabrean epoch, with scattered reports of fossils from other parts of North America and from earlier epochs.

The indigenous peoples of Florida lived in what is now known as Florida for more than 12,000 years before the time of first contact with Europeans. However, the indigenous Floridians living east of the Apalachicola River had largely died out by the early 18th century. Some Apalachees migrated to Louisiana, where their descendants now live; some were taken to Cuba and Mexico by the Spanish in the 18th century, and a few may have been absorbed into the Seminole and Miccosukee tribes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Devil's Den Cave</span> Sinkhole/underground river in Florida, United States

Devil's Den is formed by a karst window, in which the roof over a subterranean river has collapsed, exposing the water to the open surface, near Williston, Florida. It is privately owned, and operated as a SCUBA diving training and recreational facility.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paleontology in Florida</span>

Paleontology in Florida refers to paleontological research occurring within or conducted by people from the U.S. state of Florida. Florida has a very rich fossil record spanning from the Eocene to recent times. Florida fossils are often very well preserved.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fossil Cave</span> Flooded cave in the Limestone Coast area of South Australia

Fossil Cave (5L81), formerly known as The Green Waterhole, is a cave in the Limestone Coast region of south-eastern South Australia. It is located in the gazetted locality of Tantanoola about 22 kilometres north-west of the city of Mount Gambier, only a few metres from the Princes Highway between Mount Gambier and Millicent. It is popular with cave divers and is notable for being both a unique paleontological site and the "type locality" for very rare crustaceans which to date have been found only in caves and Blue Lake in the Mount Gambier region.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Natural Trap Cave</span>

Natural Trap Cave is a pit cave in the Bighorn Mountains, in northern Wyoming, United States. Excavations in the cave are an important source of paleontological information on the North American Late Pleistocene, due to a rich layer of fossils from animals that became trapped in the cave.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Noisetier Cave</span> Cave in France

The Noisetier Cave, owing its popular name to the Hazel trees that grow in front of its entrance, is located in a mountainside 145 m (476 ft) atop the Vallée d'Aure in the Ardengost commune, Hautes-Pyrénées department in the region Occitania, Southern France. During systematic excavations since 1992 Middle Paleolithic stone tools and artifacts attributed to the Neanderthal Mousterian culture were discovered among numerous faunal remains.

Sheriden Cave is a Paleo-Indian archaeological site from the late Ice age in Wyandot County, Ohio. Glacial deposits sealed off the cave more than 10,000 years ago. Sheriden Cave is a karst sinkhole on a dolomite ridge that crosses Hancock and Wyandot Counties. It is associated with the Indian Trail Caverns that opened in 1927. Sheriden Cave was discovered in 1989. The cave is unique because in addition to stone tools, there were also bone tools, remains of extinct animals, and organic matter found in the cave. Radiocarbon dating of artifacts indicate that they were used 11,000 and 12,000 years ago.

Torontoceros was an extinct genus of deer, nicknamed the Toronto subway deer. It lived in the Late Pleistocene in Ontario while likely being native elsewhere. The sole species is T. hypogaeus.

References

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.