PRELIMINARY REPORT ON FINDS OF SUPPOSEDLY 

 ANCIENT HUMAN REMAINS AT VERO, FLORIDA 



ALES HRDLICKA 

 United States National Museum, Washington, D.C. 



On the kind invitation of Dr. E. H. Sellards, state geologist of 

 Florida, and as his guest, the writer in the latter part of October, 

 1916, spent four days at Vero, Florida, where his time was devoted 

 to the study of the site from which certain human bones described 

 by Dr. Sellards were obtained, and to a preliminary examination of 

 the bones themselves. 



Generous assistance in this work was rendered by Dr. Sellards 

 and his associate, Mr. Gunter, as well as by the two local gentlemen 

 most directly interested in these finds, namely, Messrs. Ayers 

 and Weills, to whom the writer wishes to express his grateful 

 acknowledgments. 



On arriving at Vero the writer engaged workmen and with their 

 aid made a clean exposure about 160 feet in length of the geological 

 deposits in close proximity to the spots where the human bones 

 had been discovered. This afforded a comprehensive and enlighten- 

 ing view of all the formations involved. 



The two human skeletons had been found in the south bank of a 

 recently excavated drainage canal. They occurred one in fairly 

 close proximity to, and the other within the broad shallow bed of, 

 a small fresh-water stream, now drained by a lateral cut from the 

 canal. The former lay in dark and somewhat indurated sands, 

 layer No. 2 of Sellards, the latter for the most part at the base of 

 layer No. 3, the muck deposit of the stream bed, and "between this 

 and the next older stratum " (Sellards) . A few smaller bones which 

 probably belonged to the second skeleton were found at about the 

 same level and at a short distance from the rest of the remains in a 

 small elevation of the irregularly eroded upper surface of the lower 

 sandy layer No. 2. 



43 



