Re: Dinos in FL?

[Adam Black <paleoart@digital.net>]

LemmingGuy@aol.com wrote:

> p.s., have any dino fossils been discovered in Florida?  My dad said they
> were dug up from salt mines.  I told him Florida was under water (at least
> during the Cretaceous), so then the story changed to mastadons.  I'm a bit
> confused on the matter.
> 

No dinos in Florida. I mentioned in a post a few days ago that Mesozoic
sediments are nowhere near the surface in the state. The earliest
outcroppings exposed here are Eocene marine limestones. I also mentioned
that, interestingly, the earliest vertebrate recovered from Florida was
a portion of a Cretaceous turtle that was coincidentally brought up
during a deep drilling operation. These pieces are on display at the
Florida Museum of Natural History. There are no salt mines in FL, he
probably meant the phosphate mines of west-central FL, which are rich in
Miocene-Pleistocene marine and terrestrial vertebrates, including the
mastodons he mentioned.  

-- 
Adam Black
Wildlife Artist of Tertiary & Pleistocene Faunas
Archer, Florida