The Leon County paleontological sites are assemblages of

Early Miocene The Early Miocene (also known as Lower Miocene) is a sub-epoch of the Miocene Epoch made up of two stages: the Aquitanian and Burdigalian stages. The sub-epoch lasted from 23.03 ± 0.05 Ma to 15.97 ± 0.05 Ma (million years ago). It was prece ...

invertebrates and vertebrates of

Leon County, Florida Leon County is a county in the Panhandle of the U.S. state of Florida. It was named after the Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de León. As of the 2020 census, the population was 292,198. The county seat is Tallahassee, which is also the state cap ...

, United States.

Age

Era An era is a span of time defined for the purposes of chronology or historiography, as in the regnal eras in the history of a given monarchy, a calendar era used for a given calendar, or the geological eras defined for the history of Earth. Comp ...

Neogene The Neogene ( ), informally Upper Tertiary or Late Tertiary, is a geologic period and system that spans 20.45 million years from the end of the Paleogene Period million years ago ( Mya) to the beginning of the present Quaternary Period Mya. ...

Period Period may refer to: Common uses * Era, a length or span of time * Full stop (or period), a punctuation mark Arts, entertainment, and media * Period (music), a concept in musical composition * Periodic sentence (or rhetorical period), a concept ...

Faunal stage In chronostratigraphy, a stage is a succession of rock strata laid down in a single age on the geologic timescale, which usually represents millions of years of deposition. A given stage of rock and the corresponding age of time will by conventi ...

Arikareean The Arikareean North American Stage on the geologic timescale is the North American faunal stage according to the North American Land Mammal Ages chronology (NALMA), typically set from 30,600,000 to 20,800,000 years BP, a period of . It is usuall ...

, ~23.1–21.9 Ma, calculates to a period of approximately .

Geological Formation A geological formation, or simply formation, is a body of rock having a consistent set of physical characteristics ( lithology) that distinguishes it from adjacent bodies of rock, and which occupies a particular position in the layers of rock exp ...

Torreya Formation The Torreya Formation is a Miocene geologic formation with an outcrop in North Florida. It is within the Hawthorn Group. Age Period: Neogene Epoch: Early Miocene Faunal stage: Aquitanian through early Messinian ~19–15.3 mya, calculates to a ...

Sites

Leon County paleontological sites are represented by the following: *Griscom Plantation Site. Located in Killearn Lakes Plantation, south-southeast of

Lake Iamonia Lake Iamonia is a large, subtropical prairie lake in northern Leon County, Florida, United States, created during the Pleistocene epoch. History Forming Iamonia Lake Iamonia's base was established during the Early Pleistocene through submerg ...

on the southeast most section of

Luna Plantation Luna Plantation was a quail hunting plantation located in northeastern Leon County, Florida, United States established by Lloyd C. Griscom. Lloyd C. Griscom was the son of Clement A. Griscom from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Clement was a ship ...

during a well drilling operation. Time period: ~23.6–18.8 Ma. ( AEO). Coordinates: *Seaboard Air Line Railroad Site. Location was south of the center of

Tallahassee Tallahassee ( ) is the capital city of the U.S. state of Florida. It is the county seat and only incorporated municipality in Leon County. Tallahassee became the capital of Florida, then the Florida Territory, in 1824. In 2020, the population ...

during a dredging operation for a roadway. Time period: ~21.7 Ma. (AEO, Alroy). Coordinates: *St. Marks River site. Located along the St. Marks River in southern Leon County. Time period: ~23.1–21.9 Ma. (AEO, Alroy).M. C. Coombs, R. M. Hunt, Jr., E. Stepleton, L. B. Albright, III, and T. J. Fremd. 2001. Stratigraphy, chronology, biogeography, and taxonomy of early Miocene small chalicotheres of North America. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 21(3):607–620 Coordinates: *Tallahassee Waterworks Sites. Locations were just south of the center of Tallahassee. Time period: ~23.03–15.99 Ma. Coordinates: **USGS 2302 **USGS 3423 aka J.C. Henderson's well **USGS 395 Griscom Plantation Site = GPS. Seaboard Air Line Railroad = SALR. St. Marks River site = SMRS. Tallahassee Waterworks Site = TWWS.

Specimens

Invertebrates

*'' Anomia suwaneensis'' (bivalve) TWWS 3424 *''

Chlamys The chlamys (Ancient Greek: χλαμύς : chlamýs, genitive: χλαμύδος : chlamydos) was a type of an ancient Greek cloak.

'' (scallop) TWWS 2302 *''

Ostrea ''Ostrea'' is a genus of edible oysters, marine bivalve mollusks in the family Ostreidae, the oysters. Fossil records This genus is very ancient. It is known in the fossil records from the Permian to the Quaternary (age range: from 259 to 0.0 ...

normalis'' (oyster) SALR *'' Lucina janus'' (bivalve) TWWS 2302 *''

Mercenaria ''Mercenaria'' is a genus of edible saltwater clams, marine bivalve molluscs in the family Veneridae, the Venus clams. The genus ''Mercenaria'' includes the quahogs, consisting of ''Mercenaria mercenaria'', the northern quahog or hard clam, an ...

langdoni'' TWWS 395 *''

Metis Metis or Métis may refer to: Ethnic groups * Métis, recognized Indigenous communities in Canada and America whose distinct culture and language emerged after early intermarriage between First Nations peoples and early European settlers, prima ...

chipolana'' (bivalve) TWWS 2302 *''

Turritella ''Turritella'' is a genus of medium-sized sea snails with an operculum, marine gastropod mollusks in the family Turritellidae.Vos, C.; Gofas, S. (2013). Turritella Lamarck, 1799. Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species at http://www. ...

alcida'' (seal snail) TWWS 2302

Fish

*'' Carcharhinidae'' (requiem shark) SALR *'' Myliobatidae'' (eagle ray) SALR *''

Pristis ''Pristis'' is a genus of sawfish of the family Pristidae. These large fish are found worldwide in tropical and subtropical regions in coastal marine waters, estuaries, and freshwater lakes and rivers. Sawfish have declined drastically and all ...

'' (sawfish) SALR *''

Sciaenidae Sciaenidae are a family of fish in the order Acanthuriformes. They are commonly called drums or croakers in reference to the repetitive throbbing or drumming sounds they make. The family consists of about 286 to 298 species in about 66 to 70 gen ...

'' (croaker) SALR

Reptiles

*''

Alligatoridae The family Alligatoridae of crocodylians includes alligators, caimans and their extinct relatives. Phylogeny The superfamily Alligatoroidea includes all crocodilians (fossil and extant) that are more closely related to the American alligator t ...

'' (alligator) SALR *''

Boidae The Boidae, commonly known as boas or boids, are a family of nonvenomous snakes primarily found in the Americas, as well as Africa, Europe, Asia, and some Pacific Islands. Boas include some of the world's largest snakes, with the green anaconda ...

'' (boa or constricting snake) SALR *''

Crocodylidae Crocodiles (family Crocodylidae) or true crocodiles are large semiaquatic reptiles that live throughout the tropics in Africa, Asia, the Americas and Australia. The term crocodile is sometimes used even more loosely to include all extant mem ...

'' (crocodile) SALR *''

Emydidae Emydidae (Latin ''emys'' (freshwater tortoise) + Ancient Greek εἶδος (''eîdos'', “appearance, resemblance”)) is a family of testudines (turtles) that includes close to 50 species in 10 genera. Members of this family are commonly calle ...

'' (pond turtle) SALR *'' Testudinidae'' (land tortoise) SALR

Birds

*'' Gruidae'' (crane) SALR *'' Ciconiidae'' (stork) SALR

Mammals

*''

Anchitherium ''Anchitherium'' (meaning ''near beast'') was a fossil horse with a three- toed hoof. ''Anchitherium'' was a browsing (leaf eating) horse that originated in the early Miocene of North America and subsequently dispersed to Europe and Asia,(in C ...

clarencei'' (horse) SALR *''

Aphelops ''Aphelops'' (Greek: "smooth" (apheles), "face" (ops), in a reference of lacking a horn) is an extinct genus of hornless rhinoceros endemic to North America. It lived from the Middle Miocene to the early Pliocene, during which it was a common com ...

'' (rhinoceros) SALR *''

Archaeohippus ''Archaeohippus'' (Greek: "ancient" (archaios), "horse" (hippos)) is an extinct three toed member of the family Equidae known from fossils of early Oligocene to middle Miocene age. The genus is noted for several distinct skeletal features. The sk ...

blackbergi'' (horse) SALR *''

Camelidae Camelids are members of the biological family Camelidae, the only currently living family in the suborder Tylopoda. The seven extant members of this group are: dromedary camels, Bactrian camels, wild Bactrian camels, llamas, alpacas, vicuñas, ...

'' (family of camel) GPS *'' Floridatragulus'' (camel) SALR *''

Menoceras ''Menoceras'' ("Crescent Horns") is a genus of extinct, small rhinoceros endemic to most of southern North America and ranged as far south as Panama during the early Miocene epoch. It lived from around 30.7—19.7 Ma, existing for approximately ...

'' (rhinoceros) SALR *''

Moropus ''Moropus'' (meaning "slow foot") is an extinct genus of large perissodactyl ("odd-toed" ungulate) mammal in the chalicothere family. They were endemic to North America during the Miocene from ~20.4—13.6 Mya, existing for approximately . ...

'' SMRS *''

Osbornodon iamonensis ''Osbornodon iamonensis'' is an extinct species of hesperocyonine, a predecessor of modern dogs that were endemic to North America and which lived from the Oligocene to Early Miocene epoch 23.6—16.3 Ma and existed for approximately . It was n ...

'' (proto-dog) GPS *''

Oxydactylus ''Oxydactylus'' is an extinct genus of camelid endemic to North America. It lived from the Late Oligocene to the Middle Miocene (28.4–13.7 mya), existing for approximately . The name is from the Ancient Greek οξύς (oxys, "sharp")and δ ...

'' (camel) *''

Parahippus ''Parahippus'' ("near to horse"), is an extinct equid, a relative of modern horses, Donkey, asses and zebras. It lived from 24 to 17 million years ago, during the Miocene epoch. It was very similar to ''Miohippus'', but slightly larger, at around ...

'' (horse) SALR *''

Parahippus leonensis ''Parahippus leonensis'' is an extinct proto-horse of the family Equidae that was endemic to North America during the Miocene from 23.030 to 16.3 Ma living for approximately . ''Parahippus leonensis'' was named for Leon or more specifically Leo ...

'' (horse) GPS, SALR *'' Prosynthetoceras texanus'' (deer-like ungulate) SALR *''

Nothokemas ''Nothokemas'' is an extinct genus of camelid endemic to North America. It lived from the Late Oligocene to the Early Miocene 24.8— 16.0 mya, existing for approximately . Fossils have been found along the Gulf Coast from Texas to Florida ...

floridanus'' (camel) SALR *'' Proheteromys floridanus'' (rodent) SALR *''

Ruminantia Ruminants ( suborder Ruminantia) are hoofed herbivorous grazing or browsing mammals that are able to acquire nutrients from plant-based food by fermenting it in a specialized stomach prior to digestion, principally through microbial actions. The ...

'' (unknown ruminant) GPS

References

{{reflist *E. H. Sellards. 1916. Fossil vertebrates from Florida: A new Miocene fauna; new Pliocene species; the Pleistocene fauna. Florida State Geological Survey Annual Report 8:79–119. *S. J. Olsen. 1964. The stratigraphic importance of a Lower Miocene vertebrate fauna from north Florida. Journal of Paleontology 38(3):477–482. Collected by S. J. Olsen, R. Cantwell, C. Cox. *J. R. Gardner. 1947. The Molluscan Fauna of the Alum Bluff Group of Florida. United States Geological Survey Professional Paper (142A-H)1–709. Paleontological sites of Florida Geography of Leon County, Florida Cenozoic paleontological sites of North America Miocene paleontological sites