"The Florida Museum has some of the most comprehensive and widely utilized collections in the world."
www.flmnh.ufl.edu/collections/
overview/
www.flmnh.ufl.edu/discover/
fossils-and-paleontology/fossil-
collecting-resources/
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"The first people to enter the Florida peninsula around 12,000 years ago were not explorers, adventurers, or settlers, but nomads following the big game animals upon which their survival depended. Sea level was lower and rainfall less plentiful than today. Mastodons, camels, mammoths, bison, and horses roamed vast grasslands in search of food and fresh water.
Native Americans spread throughout the peninsula and into the Keys. Big game animals gradually became extinct, probably as a result of a wetter climate with forests replacing grasslands and over-exploitation by human hunters.
Food sources shifted to small game and shellfish. Populations increased and some groups moved inland to areas more suitable for growing corn, beans, squash, and other crops.
Different styles of pottery decoration became unique to certain regions. Some groups began burying their dead along with elaborate pottery and other goods in earthen mounds. By A.D. 1000, the Mississippian culture, originating farther north and eventually including much of the Southeast, extended into Florida. Today the only evidence of these first Floridians is contained in those remaining archeological sites that represent dozens of distinctive Indian cultures."
Florida Dept of State Division of Historical Resources
Florida's Fossils by
Florida is one of the finest places to hunt fossils in North America. For 50 million years Florida was home to hordes of strange and wonderful animals. Their remains accumulated in rivers, springs, and oceans. Today fossilized bones and teeth wash up along streams, banks, and beaches and lie in limerock quarries. Learn how and where to hunt fossils--with maps, means of identification, and the history of these fossil treasures. Complete, accurate, and fully illustrated, including an outstanding identification section and three original paintings by Christopher Kreider.
Before the Revolution by
Daniel Richter shows that the United States has a much deeper history than is apparent-that far from beginning with a clean slate, it is a nation with multiple pasts that stretch back as far as the Middle Ages, pasts whose legacies continue to shape the present. Exploring a vast range of original sources, Before the Revolution spans more than seven centuries and ranges across North America, Europe, and Africa. Richter recovers the lives of a stunning array of peoples-Indians, Spaniards, French, Dutch, Africans, English-as they struggled with one another and with their own people for control of land and resources. Their struggles occurred in a global context and built upon the remains of what came before. Gradually and unpredictably, distinctive patterns of North American culture took shape on a continent where no one yet imagined there would be nations called the United States, Canada, or Mexico.
Alligators, Prehistoric Presence in the American Landscape by
Alligators, Prehistoric Presence in the American Landscape offers a selection of 151 of Strawn's photographs in a unique book that combines art, science, history, folklore, land ethics, and literature to tell the story of America's southern landscape and one of its most evocative creatures. For at least 65 million years, the alligator has inhabited the North American continent. One of the few direct links to the age of the dinosaur, these ancient reptiles move gracefully through water but are relatively awkward on land (though they can charge aggressively if threatened). Strawn photographs these remarkable creatures along the white sands of the Florida landscape and the highways of Louisiana Cajun country, in citrus and avocado groves, and in developments throughout the suburban South. Here are the wetlands and deepwaters where alligators feed, bask in the sun, perform courtship dances, mate, nest, watch over their young--and, increasingly, encounter the human inhabitants of their ancient landscape. "When human beings and alligators live together in one habitat, each benefiting from the association, they are living in a state of mutuality.
Florida's First People by
* Brings to life the first humans who entered Florida about 12,000 years ago * Photos of replications of many of the technologies used by early people in their day-to-day lives * Includes a photographic atlas of Florida projectile points, pottery types & typical plant & animal remains that are uncovered at Florida archeological sites. "Authoritative, readable & splendidly illustrated. The 12,000+ year history of Florida's real natives is told sympathetically & factually, relying on modern archaeological findings & the author's own experiments with native technology...