Fossils ➔ Giant Ground Sloth (claw cast)
Taxonomy:
Eremotherium eomigransIdentifier:
2022.79.4Description:
This cast (KO-157) was created from a claw discovered in 1991 by Frank Garcia at a site called Leisley Shell Pit in Ruskin, Florida. This pit yields early Pleistocene fossils (early Irvingtonian), about 1.5 to 1 million years old.The Leisey Shell Pit consists of massive marine shell beds, overlain by a layer of quartz sand. The vertebrate fossils at Leisey Shell Pit 1A are primarily contained in a 5 to 30-cm-thick lens of dark silt covering an area of approximately 2000 sq. meters, with numerous marine, freshwater, and terrestrial invertebrate fossils. The bone bed lies at an uncomformity between the underlying Bermont Formation and the overlying Fort Thompson Formation.
Date:
1991Current Location Status:
In StorageCollection Tier:
Tier 2Source:
Museum PurchaseExhibit/Program:
Ice Age (May – September 2023)This exhibit transports visitors back in time to the last Ice Age (approx. 20,000 years ago), to learn about the large mammals (i.e., megafauna) that roamed North America. The exhibit centers around real fossils and flawless casts of ten different megafauna species, in addition to having engaging information panels and 2D and 3D artist’s renderings of the extinct animals. Visitors have the opportunity to touch real fossils and the casts.