Vero Man
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Vero man refers to a set of fossilized human bones found near Vero (now Vero Beach),
Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...
, in 1915 and 1916. The human bones were found in association with those of
Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological Epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fina ...
animals. The question of whether humans were present in Florida (or anywhere in the Americas) during the Pleistocene was controversial at the time, and most archaeologists did not accept that the Vero fossils were that old. Recent studies show that the Vero human bones are from the Pleistocene and are the largest collection of human remains from the Pleistocene found in North America.


Initial discovery

Starting in late 1913
vertebrate Vertebrates () comprise all animal taxa within the subphylum Vertebrata () ( chordates with backbones), including all mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fish. Vertebrates represent the overwhelming majority of the phylum Chordata, ...
fossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ...
s were uncovered during the construction of a drainage canal from the Indian River between Vero and Gifford. Samples of the fossils were sent by Isaac M. Weills and Frank Ayers to the state geologist of Florida, E. H. Sellards, who recognized the finds as
Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological Epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fina ...
animals. In 1915, 26 fossilized human bones and fragments were found in the banks of the canal. The following year Sellards conducted his own excavations at the site, recovering an engraved
mammoth A mammoth is any species of the extinct elephantid genus ''Mammuthus'', one of the many genera that make up the order of trunked mammals called proboscideans. The various species of mammoth were commonly equipped with long, curved tusks and, ...
tusk Tusks are elongated, continuously growing front teeth that protrude well beyond the mouth of certain mammal species. They are most commonly canine teeth, as with pigs and walruses, or, in the case of elephants, elongated incisors. Tusks share c ...
and a bird bone with marks possibly made by humans. In a nearby location he recovered human bones from the
stratum In geology and related fields, a stratum ( : strata) is a layer of rock or sediment characterized by certain lithologic properties or attributes that distinguish it from adjacent layers from which it is separated by visible surfaces known as ei ...
that contained Pleistocene fossils. Sellards also found
chert Chert () is a hard, fine-grained sedimentary rock composed of microcrystalline or cryptocrystalline quartz, the mineral form of silicon dioxide (SiO2). Chert is characteristically of biological origin, but may also occur inorganically as a prec ...
flakes and bone tools, including what appears to be a broken stemmed Archaic projectile point, and near the surface found a few ceramic sherds. Sellards first published his findings in 1916. He invited other scientists to visit the Vero site and investigate it themselves in October 1916 and in March 1917.
Aleš Hrdlička Alois Ferdinand Hrdlička, after 1918 changed to Aleš Hrdlička (; March 30,HRDLICKA, ALES ...
,
T. Wayland Vaughan Thomas Wayland Vaughan (September 20, 1870 – January 16, 1952) was an American geologist and oceanographer. He worked with the United States Geological Survey and United States National Museum, investigating the geology of the West Indies, Pan ...
,
Oliver Perry Hay Oliver Perry Hay (May 22, 1846 – November 2, 1930) was an American herpetologist, ichthyologist, and paleontologist. Hay was born in Jefferson County, Indiana, to Robert and Margaret Hay. In 1870, Hay graduated with a bachelor of arts from Eu ...
,
George Grant MacCurdy George Grant MacCurdy (April 17, 1863 – November 15, 1947) was an American anthropologist, born at Warrensburg, Mo., where he graduated from the State Normal School in 1887, after which he attended Harvard (AB, 1893; AM, 1894); then studied in ...
and Rollin T. Chamberlin visited and examined the site. Sellards and Hays concluded that the human bones dated from the Pleistocene. Hrdlička, MacCurdy and Chamberlin argued that the human bones were much more recent, while Vaughan felt that more evidence was needed before making a decision. Hrdlička, the most prominent physical anthropologist in America at the time, was firmly convinced that humans had not arrived in America until well after the Pleistocene had ended. Human bones, artifacts and/or human-modified animal bones in a Pleistocene context have been found elsewhere in Florida, including at the nearby Helen Blazes and
Melbourne Bone Bed Melbourne Bone Bed is a paleontological site located at Crane Creek in Melbourne, in the U.S. state of Florida. This site contains fossils from the Late Pleistocene period 20,000 to 10,000 years before present.Brevard County Historical Commis ...
sites.


Later developments

The human bones excavated by Sellards were passed around various institutions for study. By the time
carbon-14 dating Radiocarbon dating (also referred to as carbon dating or carbon-14 dating) is a method for determining the age of an object containing organic material by using the properties of radiocarbon, a radioactive isotope of carbon. The method was d ...
of fossils became possible, about 35 years after the discovery of Vero man, some of the bones had been lost, and others had been rendered unusable for such testing due to the way they had been preserved with chemicals. In 2009, scientists announced the discovery of a carving of a
mammoth A mammoth is any species of the extinct elephantid genus ''Mammuthus'', one of the many genera that make up the order of trunked mammals called proboscideans. The various species of mammoth were commonly equipped with long, curved tusks and, ...
or
mastodon A mastodon ( 'breast' + 'tooth') is any proboscidean belonging to the extinct genus ''Mammut'' (family Mammutidae). Mastodons inhabited North and Central America during the late Miocene or late Pliocene up to their extinction at the end of th ...
or—although not considered as likely—a giant sloth, on a piece of bone found north of Vero Beach (the general area in which Vero Man was found). The carving may be among the oldest art found in the Americas. Scientists studying the carving noted similarities with Pleistocene art in Europe. Art historian Barbara Olins Alpert has noted that similarity does not prove connection, as finely executed realistic art styles have appeared in various times and places. In 2014, new excavations at the site of the discovery of Vero man were undertaken by
Mercyhurst University (Seize the day) , former_names = Mercyhurst College (1926–2012) , established = , type = Private university , religious_affiliation = Roman Catholic (Sisters of Mercy) , endowment = $31.8 million , faculty = 136 full-time , administrat ...
and the Old Vero Ice Age Sites Committee, a local non-profit organization. The Old Vero Ice Age Sites Committee announced the discovery of a possible "human living surface" at least 12,000 years old during the 2014 excavation season. Excavations continued into 2015 at the site, with finds including 14,000 year-old charred bones from both a
dire wolf The dire wolf (''Aenocyon dirus'' ) is an extinct canine. It is one of the most famous prehistoric carnivores in North America, along with its extinct competitor ''Smilodon''. The dire wolf lived in the Americas and eastern Asia during the Late ...
and a horse, possibly from a
hearth A hearth () is the place in a home where a fire is or was traditionally kept for home heating and for cooking, usually constituted by at least a horizontal hearthstone and often enclosed to varying degrees by any combination of reredos (a lo ...
. The archaeologists from Mercyhurst University withdrew from excavations at the Old Vero Man site in Vero Beach after 2015. Starting in 2016, archaeologists from
Florida Atlantic University Florida Atlantic University (Florida Atlantic or FAU) is a Public university, public research university with its main campus in Boca Raton, Florida, and satellite campuses in Dania Beach, Florida, Dania Beach, Davie, Florida, Davie, Fort Lauderd ...
joined the Old Vero Man site excavations.


References


External links


Old Vero Ice Age Sites Committee
{{Pre-Columbian North America Paleo-Indian period Archaeological sites in Florida Human remains (archaeological) Native American history of Florida 1915 archaeological discoveries Vero Beach, Florida 1915 in Florida