Seaboard Air Line Railroad Company: Hemingfordian, Florida
collected by S. J. Olsen, R. Cantwell, C. Cox

List of taxa
Where & when
Geology
Taphonomy & methods
Metadata & references
Taxonomic list
Bivalvia - Ostreida - Ostreidae
cf. Ostrea normalis Gardner 1926
Actinopteri - Acanthuriformes - Sciaenidae
Reptilia - Testudines - Podocnemididae
Bourque 2016
Reptilia - Testudines - Emydidae
Pseudemys sp. Gray 1856
"allied to the living Pseudemys floridana group" (i.e., Pseudemys sensu stricto)
Reptilia - Testudines - Testudinidae
Geochelone sp. Fitzinger 1835
    = Testudinidae indet. Batsch 1788
Alroy 2008
Reptilia - Boidae
Boidae indet. Gray 1825
Reptilia - Gruiformes - Gruidae
Gruidae indet. Vigors 1825
"crane"
Reptilia - Ciconiiformes - Ciconiidae
Ciconiidae indet. Sundevall 1836
"stork"
Brodkorb 1963
Reptilia - Phoenicopteriformes - Palaelodidae
Brodkorb 1963
Reptilia - Alligatoridae
"perhaps... Alligator olseni"
Reptilia - Crocodylidae
"crocodile tooth"
Mammalia - Rodentia - Heteromyidae
Mammalia - Camelidae
MacFadden et al. 1991
may include "hypertragulid or cervid" of Olsen 1964
Alroy 2002
Mammalia - Protoceratidae
MacFadden et al. 1991
Mammalia - Perissodactyla - Rhinocerotidae
"perhaps" Aphelops
    = Menoceras sp. Troxell 1921
Morgan 1993
Mammalia - Perissodactyla - Equidae
Bryant et al. 1992
Alroy 2002
Chondrichthyes - Carcharhiniformes - Carcharhinidae
Carcharhinus sp. de Blainville 1816
Chondrichthyes - Rhinopristiformes - Pristidae
Pristis sp. Linck 1790
Chondrichthyes - Myliobatiformes - Myliobatidae
Myliobatis sp. Cuvier 1816
see common names

Geography
Country:United States State/province:Florida County:Leon
Coordinates: 30.3° North, 84.2° West (view map)
Paleocoordinates:32.9° North, 76.8° West (Wright 2013)
Basis of coordinate:based on political unit
Geographic resolution:small collection
Time
Period: Neogene Epoch: Miocene
Stage: Burdigalian 10 m.y. bin: Cenozoic 5
*Period:Tertiary
Key time interval: Hemingfordian
Age range of interval: 18.5 - 16.3 m.y. ago
* legacy (obsolete) database fields
Stratigraphy
Formation:Torreya Member:lower
Local section:Torre Local bed:1
Local order:bottom to top
Stratigraphic resolution:group of beds
Stratigraphy comments: from five successive beds with thicknessess of 1-2", 12-20", 1-2", 3-4", and 14-16"; the second bed is the "primary vertebrate zone" and the first is "part of primary vertebrate zone"
Lithology and environment
Primary lithology:shelly/skeletal,green,yellow sandstone
Lithology description: first bed is "sand, light yellowish gray, quartz, medium grained, loose subrounded particles"; second is "sand, light greenish gray in color, quartz, medium grained, containing broken [oyster] shell fragments and whole shells"; third is "clay, dark yellowish orange, with laminae of quartz sand, moderately yellow-brown" including "Limestone fragments"; fourth is "sand, dark yellowish brown, quartz, medium grained in a clay matrix"; fifth includes "Individual oyster shells... lying horizontally, strongly cemeted [sic] together"
Environment:estuary/bay
Geology comments: "an estuarine type of shoreline of a shallow Miocene sea... The vertebrates were contained in both the oyster bar and in the sediments immediately below the bar"
Taphonomy
Modes of preservation:body
Size of fossils:macrofossils,mesofossils
Articulated whole bodies:none
Associated major elements:none
Disassociated major elements:some
Disassociated minor elements:many
Collection methods and comments
Collection methods:salvage,selective quarrying,field collection
Reason for describing collection:biostratigraphic analysis
Collectors:S. J. Olsen, R. Cantwell, C. Cox
Collection method comments: "The fossil remains came to light during dragline operations... while making a road cut"
Taxonomic list comments:overlying horizon dated at 18.4 +/- 1.0 Ma (Sr isotope), but sample has a strong diagenetic overprint despite being biochronologically consistent: Bryant et al. 1992
Metadata
Database number:18586
Authorizer:J. Alroy, P. Holroyd, J. Bloch Enterer:J. Alroy, R. Hulbert, P. Holroyd
Modifier:E. Vlachos Research group:vertebrate
Created:1994-04-30 00:00:00 Last modified:2025-02-22 15:12:02
Access level:the public Released:1994-04-30 00:00:00
Creative Commons license:CC0
Reference information

Primary reference:
2692. S. J. Olsen. 1964. The stratigraphic importance of a Lower Miocene vertebrate fauna from north Florida. Journal of Paleontology 38(3):477-482 [J. Alroy/J. Alroy/J. Alroy]

Secondary references:

6294 J. Alroy. 2002. Synonymies and reidentifications of North American fossil mammals. [J. Alroy/J. Alroy/M. Kouvari]
26812 J. Alroy. 2008. Synonymies, reidentifications, and other arbitrary pronouncements mostly concerning fossil vertebrates. [J. Alroy/J. Alroy]
59687 J. R. Bourque. 2016. Side-Necked Turtles (Testudines, Pleurodira) from the Ancient Gulf Coastal Plain of Florida During Middle Cenozoic Megathermals. Chelonian Conservation and Biology 15(1):23-35 [P. Holroyd/P. Holroyd]
50551 P. Brodkorb. 1963. Fossil birds from the Alachua Clay of Florida. Florida Geological Survey Special Publication 2(4):1-17 [J. Bloch/R. Hulbert]
50553 P. Brodkorb. 1963. Miocene birds from the Hawthorne Formation. Quarterly Journal of the Florida Academy of Sciences 26(2):159-167 [J. Bloch/R. Hulbert]
1146 J. D. Bryant, B. J. MacFadden, and P. A. Mueller. 1992. Improved chronologic resolution of the Hawthorn and the Alum Bluff Groups in northern Florida: Implications for Miocene chronostratigraphy. Geological Society America Bulletin 104(2):208-218 [J. Alroy/J. Alroy/P. Wagner]
2371 B. J. MacFadden, J. D. Bryant, and P. A. Mueller. 1991. Sr-isotopic, paleomagnetic, and biostratigraphic calibration of horse evolution: evidence from the Miocene of Florida. Geology 19(3):242-245 [J. Alroy/J. Alroy/P. Wagner]
2612 G. S. Morgan. 1993. Mammalian biochronology and marine-nonmarine correlations in the Neogene of Florida. Neogene of Florida and adjacent regions; proceedings of the Third Bald Head Island conference on Coastal plains geology. Special Publication, Florida Geological Survey 37:55-66 [J. Alroy/J. Alroy]