Melbourne Bone Bed

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Melbourne Bone Bed is a paleontological site located at Crane Creek in Melbourne, Florida. This site contains fossils from 20,000 to 10,000 years before present in the Pleistocene period.^[1] The fossils include extinct animals such as varieties of Camels, Giant Armadillos, Giant Beavers, Giant Bison, Giant Ground Sloths, Mammoths, Mastodons, Saber-Toothed Cats and Tapirs.^[1]

[edit] Melbourne Man

Geologists uncovered a set of human remains among the fossils near the Melbourne Bone Bed and scientists exhibited the skull at the Paleontological Society of America meeting in 1925.^[1] This discovery sparked a 30 year debate between geologists and archaeologists resulting in the skull becoming known as the Melbourne Man.^[1] Recent consensus dates the Melbourne Man as early as 10,000 BC confirming that Native Americans coexisted with Pleistocene mammals in the area at the end of that period.^[1]

[edit] Footnotes