28°06′N80°36′W / 28.1°N 80.6°W /28.1; -80.6
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Melbourne Bone Bed is apaleontological site located atCrane Creek inMelbourne, in theU.S. state ofFlorida. This site containsfossils from theLate Pleistocene period 20,000 to 10,000 years before the present.[1] The fossils includeextinct animals such as varieties ofcamels,dire wolves,Florida cave bears,giant armadillos,giant beavers,giant bison,giant ground sloths,mammoths,mastodons,saber-toothed cats, andtapirs.[1][2]
The excavations were conducted at three sites; the Golf Course site on the east bank of Crane Creek on the Melbourne Golf and Country Club (south of West New Haven Avenue), the Singleton Estate site about 1 mile (1.6 km) southeast of the Golf Course site, and a minor site on the south bank of Crane Creek about 1 mile (1.6 km) west of the Golf Course site.[2] C. P. Singleton discovered the bones of amammoth (Mammuthus columbi) on his property alongCrane Creek, 1.5 miles (2.4 km) from Melbourne, and brought inAmherst Collegepaleontologist Frederick B. Loomis to excavate the skeleton. Loomis found a second elephant with a "large rough flint instrument"[3] among fragments of the elephant's ribs. Loomis found in the samestratum mammoth,mastodon,horse,ground sloth,tapir,peccary,camel, andsaber-tooth cat bones, all extinct in Florida since the end of the Pleistocene 10,000 years ago. At a nearby site a human rib and charcoal were found in association withMylodon,Megalonyx, andHolmesina (formerlyChlamytherium) teeth. A finely worked spear point found with these items may have been displaced from a later stratum. In 1925 attention shifted to the Melbourne golf course. A crushed human skull with finger, arm, and leg bones was found in association with a horse tooth. A piece ofivory that appeared to have been modified by humans was found at the bottom of the stratum containing bones. Other finds included a spear point near a mastodon bone and a turtle-back scraper and blade found with bear, camel, mastodon, horse, and tapir bones.[4] James Gidley of theSmithsonian Institution joined Loomis in 1926, and continued to collect from the site until 1929. C. P. Singleton also continued to collect from the Golf Course site when Loomis and Gidley were absent, reportedly with the permission of the Smithsonian and some funding fromHarvard University. The Melbourne site has been described as "one of the "Big Three" late Pleistocene sites discovered in Florida during the first half of the 20th Century".[2]
Theskull found at the Melbourne Golf Course was exhibited at thePaleontological Society of America meeting in 1925.[1] This discovery sparked a 30-year debate between geologists andarchaeologists resulting in the skull becoming known as the Melbourne Man.[1] Recent consensus dates the Melbourne Man as early as 10,000 BC confirming thatNative Americans coexisted with Pleistocenemammals in the area at the end of that period.[1]
Human remains, Pleistocene animals and Paleo-Indian artifacts similar to those from the Melbourne Bone Bed were found inVero Beach, 30 miles (48 km) south of Melbourne, and similar Paleo-Indian artifacts were found at theHelen Blazes archaeological site, 10 miles (16 km) southwest of Melbourne.
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