4 



THE QUATERNARY DEPOSITS AT VERO, FLORIDA, 



AND THE VERTEBRATE REMAINS CONTAINED 



THEREIN 



OLIVER P. HAY 



Research Associate, Carnegie Institution of Washington. 



I arrived at Vero on the evening of October 25 and left there 

 on October 31. Having examined with some care the geological 

 situation and having studied somewhat the vertebrate fossils 

 found in the strata designated by Dr. Sellards as No. 2 and No. 3, 

 I reach the following conclusions : 



1. Stratum No. 2 was in general laid down during the Pleistocene. 

 — It seems hardly necessary to present arguments to sustain this 

 conclusion, for it is hardly probable that anyone will call it in ques- 

 tion. It is possible that some parts of the stratum were afterward 

 re-worked by the streamlet which flowed over it, but this was 

 accomplished during Pleistocene times. 



2. The vertebrate fauna of No. 2 belongs to the Pleistocene, and 

 most of it is there by primary inclusion. — No place was discovered 

 from which the included bones and teeth might have been washed 

 in, nor do they in general have the appearance of transported 

 fossils. These bony remains are in what may be regarded as a 

 normal condition; as when, in a little valley furnishing food and 

 drink and shade, herbivorous and carnivorous species had resorted 

 and perished there for thousands of years. In a normal way their 

 bones have almost all fallen into dust. Some, buried under some- 

 what favorable conditions, endured longer, but softened and were 

 trampled into fragments by succeeding generations of elephants, 

 mastodons, horses, bisons, huge ground sloths, and smaller forms. 

 Only the most favored and protected bones and teeth have endured 

 to the present, mostly scattered, but sometimes remaining asso- 

 ciated with others of the same skeleton. 



3. At least the lower part of No. 3 is also of Pleistocene age. — 

 This deposit is somewhat more difficult to work for fossils, but it 



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