2 /•'. //. Sellards— Discover)/ of Fossil Human luniaina 



Acknowledgments, — Notice of the occurrence of fossils at 

 Vero was brought to the writer's attention in November, 1913, 

 by .Mr. Isaac M. Weills, the presence of fossil bones in the 

 canal having been reported to him by Mr. F. C. Gilford. Mr. 

 Weills, with the assistance of Mr. Frank Ayers, has constantly 

 watched the canal hanks and has thus obtained the fossils as 

 they were exposed. Among- others, who have contributed fos- 

 sils from this local it v, are Messrs. F. C. Gifford, E. J. Wood, 

 J. McCullers, 1ST. F. McCall and ,i. W. Welch. To Messrs. 

 Weills and Ayers in particular are due the very important 

 results that have been obtained, Mr. Ayers' close watch of the 

 canal bank having been rewarded by the fortunate discovery 

 of the human remains while they were still in place in the 

 undisturbed walls of the canal. Additional collections at 

 this locality have been made by H. Gunter and the writer. 

 Acknowledgments are due the officials of the U. S. National 

 ~M useum, and especially to Mr. J. W. Gidley, assistant Curator 

 of Mammals, for facilities afforded in consulting the collec- 

 tions of the Museum. The turtles of the Pleistocene of Florida 

 contained in the Florida State Geological Survey collection, 

 including those found at Vero, have been identified, and subse- 

 quently will be described, by Dr. 0. P. Hay of the Carnegie 

 Institution. The photographs included in this paper, except 

 that of text-figure 7, were made by E. P. Greene. The chemi- 

 cal analyses have been made by L. Heimberger, under the 

 direction of R. E. Rose, State Chemist of Florida. 



The Geologic Section at Vero. 



It is desirable, before describing the human remains, to con- 

 sider the general geologic section at Vero, as well as the late 

 geologic history of this part of the Atlantic Coast. The 

 marine shell marl into which the canal cuts, number 1 of the 

 section shown in text-figure 2, is a part of the extensive series 

 of marine marls which border the Atlantic Coast, beginning on 

 the north near St. Augustine, where the marl is known as 

 "Coquina" rock, and extending south to the Everglades of 

 Florida, beyond which the shell marls give place to the shal- 

 low-water limestones of extreme southern Florida. These 

 marls and limestones are known by their invertebrate fauna to 

 be of Pleistocene age. 1 



The sands which as a rule overlie the shell marls are in part 

 of marine origin, having accumulated in shoal waters, or as 



1 Florida State Geol. Survey, Second Annual Report, 1909. 



