They found bison and mastodon bones that dated to 14,500 and showed clear signs of human butchering.
I grew up in Florida, and I can't recall ever being taught that large grazing animals once roamed the state. In fact, modern day Florida really has nothing that resembles large dry ground grasslands, so it's hard to understand what a bison could have survived on, especially in the Vero Beach area.
The cool thing about the Tallahassee site is that the 14,500 year date plays havoc with the consensus idea that Clovis people were the first to inhabit the Lower 48
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3430367/posts
and from FReepmail:
http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/a20872/tools-mastodon-florida-underwater-archaeology/
14,500 would put this before the time period described in the book at Comment #2 (a good read by the way). This event which probably occurred 2,000 years later may have caused a major die-off of very large mammals as well as humans. Florida was much bigger in those days as the ice caps were still in the process of melting. What is now everglades could have been grassy plains. A young friend has sold property in Miami and bought around Orlando since they fear that by the time their grandchildren inherit, Miami will be underwater. The link below shows various sizes of Florida. The second map, first row shows the outline of Florida 20,000ya with a dashed red line. The shrunken white Florida is ancient, but also reflects Florida with raised sea levels. The green and yellow map on the sixth row also shows ancient and modern borders. As you can see the ancient area is at least twice the modern area so areas now swamp would not be then.
Try driving between Melbourne and Kissimmee along 192. Lots of cattle grazing land. Deer, Bobcats, Crested Cara Caras, every type of hawk in the book, wild turkeys, wild bacon, and a Bald Headed Eagle that’s taken up residence around Harmony. Not so many bison though.
“They found bison and mastodon bones that dated to 14,500 and showed clear signs of human butchering.”
Was it the expiration date on the package wrapping that gave it away?
“...it’s hard to understand what a bison could have survived on, especially in the Vero Beach area.”
Maybe they were there on vacation—brought some food from up north in checked baggage.
Sorry, couldn’t help myself and I apologize for being a smart-a. Don’t know what got into me today. Your post was informative and I, too, am curious about these repeated discoveries in the southeast that predate the western states’ human settlements and suggest some humans might have been in the ice-free areas before the end of the last ice age. How did they get there, if they were there?
Have you heard of these?
Bye, Bye Beringia (8,000 Year Old Site In Florida)
"At Windover, more ancient human remains were discovered than the total of all others found previously in the New World, and they were the oldest. "
BTW, I spent last weekend in Vero Beach.