FOSSIL PLANTS FROM VERO, FLORIDA 665 



Regarding its bearing on the interesting problem of the age of 

 the human and associated mammalian and other remains at Vero, 

 my study of the locality furnishes the following somewhat categori- 

 cal conclusions. The underlying shell marl which forms a definite 

 and undisputed datum plane is late Pleistocene in age. Its species 

 all exist in near-by waters at the present time, and many of them 

 have been recorded from shell marls found from southern New 

 Jersey to the Florida keys and forming a part of the lowest and 

 latest well-defined terrace plain previously mentioned as having 

 been named Talbot in Maryland, Chowan in North Carolina, and 

 Pensacola in Florida. It follows that the vertebrate remains which 

 are so numerous at Vero cannot possibly be of Middle or early 

 Pleistocene age unless they are regarded as having been reworked 

 from older deposits, and I cannot conceive that this was possible, 

 nor do the vertebrate paleontologists who have examined the de- 

 posits consider that such was the case. In fact, I believe that, if 

 it had not been for the overestimate of the age of this vertebrate 

 fauna, Dr. Chamberlin would not have advanced his hypothesis 

 of the reworking and mechanical mixing of these bones and 

 Dr. Hrdlicka would not have insisted on the human burial theory 

 to account for the presence of the human skeletal remains. Nothing 

 is more reasonable than to suppose that the larger elements in the 

 Middle Pleistocene fauna of more northern areas should have 

 lingered for thousands of years in this more genial southern clime 

 until the presence of man in considerable numbers and the changing 

 climate as is attested by the fossil plants should have brought about 

 the extinction of a large percentage of the fauna. The fauna itself 

 confirms the rather limited data furnished by the fossil flora of this 

 change in climate, since it indicates a more mesophytic habitat 

 than exists today in the vicinity of Vero. Regarding the burial 

 theory of Dr. Hrdlicka it may be said that a part of the plant 

 material came from immediately above one of the human skeletons, 

 and I cannot conceive of the possibility of not being able to see 

 evidence of artificial burial in material made up of alternate layers 

 of sand and matted leaves and other vegetable debris. I therefore 

 see no reason to doubt that relative modern men were contempo- 

 raneous with this partially extinct fauna of Middle Pleistocene 



