FURTHER STUDY OF THE PROBLEM OF EARLY 

 MAN IN FLORIDA 



Bv J. W. GIDLEY, 



Assistant Curator, Di7'ision of Vertebrate Paleontoloyy, U. S. National Museum 



During the last few years the Smithsonian Institution has heen 

 interested in scientific investigation of the Pleistocene fossil-bone- 

 bearing deposits in eastern Florida, especially in connection with the 

 problem of early man, and expeditions have been conducted there as 

 time and funds for field-work became available. In continuation 

 of this work I went to Melbourne in the latter part of January, 1928, 

 and spent two months at that place, at Vero, and at other east coast 

 locations, making collections of material and a systematic and critical 

 study of the deposits. 



As a result many new data were obtained which have an important 

 bearing on the highly interesting and much discussed question of the 

 presence of early man in Florida. This question was first raised in 

 1916, when Dr. E. H. Sellards, then State Geologist of Florida, re- 

 ported the finding at Vero of fossil human remains and artifacts 

 associated with the fossil bones of an extinct vertebrate fauna. Subse- 

 quent investigations at Vero, but more especially those at Melbourne, 

 have added considerable evidence which seems to confirm Dr. Sellard's 

 view of the contemporaneity of man and the animals whose remains 

 have been found intermingled. But owing to the nature and shallow- 

 ness of the deposits, which might permit, through burials or otherwise, 

 a comparatively recent mingling of human remains with bones of an 

 older geologic age, there have been wide differences of opinion as to 

 the interpretation of the association of material found in them. 



The country is low-lying and flat where these fossil-bone-bearing 

 beds are located, and before drainage canals were dug by modern 

 man the best fossil-yielding areas were for the most part covered by 

 swamps and heavy swamp vegetation. Even with the land now drained 

 of most of the underground water, prevailing conditions make diffi- 

 cult the task of working out and properly interpreting the geologic 

 structure and relationships of the two principal deposits involved. It 

 was thus early recognized that worth while results and a satisfactory 

 solution of the main question could be obtained only by extensive 

 excavations and systematic study of the deposits over considerable 

 areas. The earlier expeditions were much limited by the lack of 



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