Ancient 14,000-year-old bison remains discovered at Florida excavation site

Archaeologists working at one of the oldest sites in North America believe they have unearthed the remains of an ancient, now extinct species of bison that could be between 13,000 and 14,000 years old, officials at Florida Atlantic University revealed Wednesday in a statement.

The announcement of the discovery, which was made earlier this year at the Old Vero Man Site in Vero Beach, Florida, came just days after the creature’s modern relatives were designated the official national mammal of the United States. The specimen was discovered beneath a layer of rock the research believe contained material dating back to the Pleistocene period.

A team of researchers from FAU’s Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute discovered the bones just 10 feet beneath the surface. Using an upper molar, they identified the newfound creature as a member the species Bison antiquus, a direct ancestor of the American bison that had larger horns and bones than its modern-day counterpart, and was roughly 15 to 25 percent bigger overall.

“This finding is especially significant because of the meticulous documentation that has been involved,” explained Dr. James M. Adovasio, principal investigator on the study. “Along with the fact that bones like this have never been found on land as part of a calculated archaeological effort. Others like this have all been found underwater, in sinkholes or streams.”

Preserved remains one of the last finds of the 2016 season

Bison antiquus was the most common large herbivore in North America for more than 10,000 years, according to the researchers. They were about eight feet tall, 15 feet long and weighed close to 3,500 pounds. However, since the bison were a creature that was adapted to grassland, nearly all of their bones disintegrated following their demise unless somehow preserved.

Fortunately for the FAU team, they were able to discover well-preserved remains of the animal, along with remains belonging to various small mammals and bone slivers that may be from large creatures such as mammoths or mastodons, near the end of their 2016 excavation work at the Old Vero Man site. The fossils they found have been transported to the school’s Ancient DNA Lab in Harbor Branch for additional research and analysis, the university noted.

Lead archaeologist Dr. Andrew Hemmings said that he and his colleagues “couldn’t have asked for a better representative species from that era” and that the discovery reveals that “people were here in Vero Beach at that time.” The research team had previously discovered the head of a fly and tiny bits of charcoal during this year’s excavations, which began back in February.

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Image credit: Thinkstock

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