Abstract or Keywords
Abstract – A rich Rancholabrean local fauna representing a freshwater marsh community with
adjacent uplands is identified from a site in St. Petersburg, Florida. During the winter of 2008,
sediments excavated on the Eckerd College campus produced a previously unknown assemblage
of fossil terrestrial and aquatic vertebrates. All fossils found to date can be assigned to a Late
Pleistocene age. Remains of Holmesina septentrionalis, Sigmodon hispidus and Amphiuma means
provide evidence that the age of the site falls within the Rancholabrean North American Land
Mammal Age. The fossils consist of many aquatic vertebrates with alligators, freshwater turtles,
amphibians, and aquatic snakes being the more common elements found. These suggest deposition
in or near a large source of freshwater, most likely a marsh. Fragmentary fossils of terrestrial
mammals including large herbivores such as horse, tapir, and mammoth were most likely washed
into the site from adjacent upland habitats.