Horses and Buffalo

It is Florida 24,000 years ago, and North America is capped with ice. That ice was drawn out of the oceans, lowering the world’s sea level.

Late Pleistocene Epoch

I assume that 24 ,000 years ago, Florida’s coastal zone was lush and covered with forest. The roots of those ancient trees grew on soil, that thinly covered Florida’s spacious limestone shelf. Rivers in the northern part of the state, rivers like the Aucilla, went underground. Their smooth surfaces swept toward the distant Gulf in the midnight tunnels of caves. Only occasionally did sinkholes allow sun beams to penetrate that secret world. Did seasonal rains from the Gulf spread life’s green carpet inland? Were there secret oasis in the interior, places where springs oozed their life-giving moisture?

glaciamax JPEG

030 Bison Foot bone- 037

Horse fossils seem to be the most common animal that construction sites turned up in the 1960s. They were everywhere!

 

Arctodus simus The Short-faced Bear (3 millionÑ11,000) years ago was the biggest bear that ever lived Standing with all fours on the ground it was about 6 feet tall but when it rose up on its hind legs it was over 12 feet tall! It prowled the scrub for nuts, berries, and prey. It is hunting a bison antiquus calf.

Bison antiquus and her calf being chased down by a short faced bear..