16 Timothy S. Young and Joshua Laerm 



numerous amateur collectors but a limited number of professionals. 

 Storrs Olson (National Museum of Natural History) collected from a 

 broad, shallow water area in Wakulla County near the Leon County 

 line several times between 1968 and 1970. Tall Timbers Research 

 Station sponsored collecting parties in the same area during 1974. 

 Published accounts of the fauna are those of Gillette (1976b), who 

 reported the mammals, and Steadman (1980), who discussed two 

 specimens of Meleagris gallopavo. Storrs Olson (personal communication) 

 examined the avian assemblage from the previous collections; however, 

 he did not publish his findings. 



With the exception of Mammuthus sp. Mammut americanum, 

 Synaptomys australis, and possibly Equus, the majority of species from 

 Gillette's (1916b) report are extant. Gillette (19766) suggested that 

 the assemblage was important because it represented a restricted 

 temporal interval of the latest Pleistocene through the Holocene. Olsen 

 (personal communication) felt the avian assemblage was very similar 

 to that of today. Steadman (1980) characterized the site as a late 

 Pleistocene deposit. The St. Marks River has also been reported by 

 Lundelius et al. (1983) as being a naturally accumulating, fluvial 

 Rancholabrean deposit. 



The purpose of our study is to review previous collections 

 and to report on new fossil materials recently obtained from the 

 St. Marks River. We provide information regarding the paleoenvironment 

 of the depositional area and compare the St. Marks River fauna to 

 other late Pleistocene faunas in the region. 



GEOLOGICAL AND GEOGRAPHIC SETTING 



Florida consists of five naturally occurring topographical 

 divisions (Cooke 1939:14). The St. Marks River drainage basin is in 

 the coastal lowlands division. Although the panhandle of Florida 

 shows a topographical record of the relict shorelines, no ages have 

 been securely assigned to these formations (Winker and Howard 

 1977a, 6). The coast line of the panhandle during the late 

 Pleistocene is reported to be similar to that of today (Winker and 

 Howard 19776). 



The St. Marks River is considered part of the Gulf Hammock 

 region; it is underlain by the Upper Oligocene Suwannee Limestone 

 (Harper 1914:302). The early Miocene St. Marks Formation overlies 

 the Suwannee Formation in almost all of Wakulla County (Puri and 

 Vernon 1964). The St. Marks Formation was revised to include the 

 calcareous downdip facies of the Tampa Formation (Puri 1953). These 

 formations can be found in many areas as outcroppings in springs 

 and rivers (Spencer and Rupert 1987). The surface is mostly loamy 



