One could almost refer to the Reddick Fossil Site in Florida as Rancho La Brea east. It’s one of the richest eastern sites in species diversity, but nevertheless falls far short of Rancho La Brea’s treasure chest of fossils. At least 147 species of vertebrates were recovered from Reddick compared to 231 from Rancho La Brea and the latter also far surpasses the former in quantity. Moreover, Rancho La Brea is still being excavated. The Reddick Fossil Site was an abandoned limerock quarry excavated during the early 1960’s. The Pleistocene topography consisted of limesink lakes and caverns with a soil chemistry that helped preserve the bones of many animals. Owls roosted in the caves during the Pleistocene, and bones from the small mammals and birds they ate were found in their fossil pellets. The composition of species shows that a wide variety of habitats occurred locally, including woodland, grassland, and wetland. The fossil remains are thought to date to between ~200,000 BP- ~114,000 BP. The presence of glyptodont, vampire bat, ocelot, and giant tortoise is evidence of a climate at least as warm as today’s Florida, even though this period of time includes the Illinois Ice Age. This is the only site in southeastern North America where ocelot fossil remains have been found. Only 32 of the 147 species are extinct. Many of the large mammals were probably overhunted by man into extinction, and we know for sure passenger pigeons were. However, some of the bird extinctions were local species that became extinct during marine high stages of the Sangamonian Interglacial when much of their terrestrial habitat was lost to high sea levels. The following is the Reddick Fossil Site faunal list from the below referenced work. * denotes extinct species. + indicates an extant species no longer native to Florida. The remarkable thing about this list is how few reptiles have gone extinct. This suggests little environmental change in this region over the past 200,000 years. (I’m not including the scientific name for most of these entries. I feel lazy today and it’s almost a holiday. Happy Thanksgiving.)
Marion County, location of 1 of the best Pleistocene fossil sites in southeastern North America.
Greater siren
Mud siren
Ambystoma sp. (a type of salamander)
eastern spadefooted toad
oak toad
common toad
narrow-mouthed toad
tree frog sp.
leopard frog
Pseudemys sp. (a type of slider/cooter turtle)
box turtle (Terrepene carolina putnami)–an extinct subspecies but extant species
gopher tortoise
*medium-sized land tortoise–Hesperotestudo incisa
*giant land tortoise–H. crassicutata
soft-shelled turtle
green anole lizard
eastern race runner
5-lined skink
common glass lizard
Florida worm lizard
eastern ring-necked snake
mud snake
yellow-lipped snake
eastern hog-nosed snake
southern hog-nosed snake
rough green snake
black racer
coachwhip snake
indigo snake
king snake
corn snake
rat snake
pine snake
crowned snake
brown snake
garter snake
coral snake
pygmy rattlesnake
All of the species of snakes found at the Reddick fossil site were still relatively common when Columbus reached North America
eastern diamondback rattlesnake
alligator
pied-billed grebe
*extinct grebe, a diver in the podiceps genus
mottled duck
pintail duck
shoveler
blue-winged teal
green-winted teal
ring-necked duck
*extinct condor–Gymnogyps amplus
turkey vulture
*extinct vulture–Coragyps occidentalis
Cooper’s hawk
sharp-shinned hawk
red-tailed hawk
red-shouldered hawk
peregrine falcon
sparrow hawk
caracara
quail
*extinct quail–Neotyx pennisubali
turkey
Virginia rail
sora
*extinct rail–Porzana auffenbergi
yellow rail
*extinct rail–Laterallus guti
*extinct coot–Fuliza merm
common crow
fish crow
blue jay
*extinct jay–in protocitta genus
house wren
*extinct wren–Gasthothanus brevs
maryland yellowthroat
cowbird
red-winged blackbird
grackle
eastern meadowlark
rufous-sided towhee
Henslow’s sparrow
Henslow’s sparrow. This species prefers weedy grassland habitat. Ducks and rails prefer wetlands. Passenger pigeons and woodpeckers need woodlands. The composition of birds reflects varied habitats near this locality during the Pleistocene.
killdeer
lesser yellowlegs
common snipe
*passenger pigeon
mourning dove
barn owl
screech owl
burrowing owl
barred owl
yellow-shafted flicker
red-headed woodpecker
eastern kingbird
purple martin
*extinct swallow–Tachycinctus spelodytes
oppossum
*vampire bat–Desmodus stockii
southeastern myotis
red bat
Florida yellow bat
Brazilian free-tailed bat
*Wheatley’s ground sloth–the evolutionary ancestor of Jefferson’s ground sloth
*Harlan’s ground sloth
*Beautiful armadillo
*pampathere–a giant armadillo
*glyptodont
marsh rabbit
cottontail rabbit
southern flying squirrel
undetermined squirrel in scurius genus–probably a gray squirrel
southeastern pocket gopher
rice rat
harvest mouse
old field mouse
cotton mouse
Florida mouse
golden mouse
cotton rat
wood rat
pine vole
round-tailed muskrat
*Florida bog lemming–Synaptomys australis
*dire wolf
+coyote
gray fox
*Florida spectacled bear–Tremarctos floridanus
black bear
raccoon
+hog-nosed skunk
spotted skunk
striped skunk
+jaguar
cougar
+ocelot
Reddick is the only fossil site in southeastern North America where remains of an ocelot have been found
bobcat
saber-tooth–Smilodon fatalis
mastodon
mammoth
+horse
*tapir
*long-nosed peccary
*flat-headed peccary
*large-headed llama
*stout-legged llama
white-tailed deer
bison
Reference:
Gut, James H.; and Clayton Ray
“The Pleistocene Vertebrate Fauna of Reddick, Florida”
Quarterly Journal of the Florida Academy of Science 1964
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