FOSSIL HUMAN REMAINS AT VERO, FLORIDA 53 



has furnished almost all the forms that are found in No. 2. It is 

 not improbable that some bones and teeth were redeposited from 

 the lower stratum, but not, I think, any considerable or essential 

 portion of them. 



a) Considering the relatively small amount of erosion which 

 No. 2 suffered from the stream which laid down the muck bed, 

 there are too many fossils in the latter to permit the conclusion 

 that any great number of them came from the older deposit. The 

 lowest layers of muck early formed a blanket which protected the 

 sands of No. 2 from further disturbance. 



b) The state of preservation of the fossils of No. 3 does not 

 indicate that they were redeposited from No. 2. They are not 

 more broken and waterworn than those of No. 2. 



c) There are some extinct species in No. 3 whose remains 

 must lie where originally buried. The box- tortoise Terrapene 

 innoxia is found in both strata. Although the bones of the cara- 

 pace are usually co-ossified into one mass, this shell is so thin and 

 brittle that it would certainly have fallen into pieces on being 

 rolled along a stream bed. It is even now extremely difficult to 

 unearth a shell without breaking it. Yet one whole carapace and 

 large portions of others have been secured from No. 3. From this 

 muck bed there come seven bones of one individual of an extinct 

 snapping tortoise, probably Chelydra sculpta. The shell of this 

 animal, like that of our living species, is thin and loosely articulated. 

 On maceration the bones separate easily. Had the seven bones 

 referred to been buried originally in No. 2, they would, on being 

 washed out, have been scattered like autumn leaves. 



d) In No. 3 there is a deer of the genus Odocoileus which is 

 smaller than the one found in No. 2. 1 From No. 3 Dr. Sellards 

 has sent me a. fifth cervical vertebra which shows that this deer is 

 very distinct from the existing Virginia deer and still farther 

 removed from the mule deer. The fox referred with doubt by 

 Dr. Sellards to the red fox is certainly an undescribed species, 

 having had a heavier lower jaw than that of the red fox. A 

 femur from No. 3 probably belongs to the same species. It is 

 larger, straighter, and more flattened than that of the red fox. 



'Sellards, 8th Ann. Rep. Fla. Geol. Surv. p. 149. 



