Latest news with #RobertSinibaldi
Yahoo
19-02-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Divers discover 500,000-year-old treasure trove of fossils in Florida sinkhole
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Fossil collectors have discovered a prehistoric graveyard buried in Florida's Steinhatchee River. The site has yielded a remarkable collection of more than 500 fossils dating back roughly half a million years. It was full of exceptionally well-preserved bones from ancient mammals, including horses, giant armadillos, sloths and possibly a new species of tapir. Around 500,000 years ago, before the river flowed over the site, a sinkhole opened up in Florida's Big Bend region and became a death trap for hundreds of animals. Sediment filled the sinkhole over time, entombing their remains in near-pristine condition. These fossils remained hidden until 2022, when fossil collectors Robert Sinibaldi and Joseph Branin stumbled upon them during a routine diving expedition in the river's murky waters. After Branin spotted horse teeth sticking out of the sediment, the pair uncovered a hoof core and a tapir skull, signaling a potential major discovery. 'It wasn't just quantity, it was quality,' Sinibaldi said in a statement released on Feb. 12 by the Florida Museum of Natural History. 'We knew we had an important site, but we didn't know how important.' The Florida Museum recognized the significance of the find and dated it to the middle of the Irvingtonian North American Land Mammal Age (1.6 million–250,000 years ago)—an evolutionary transition period with a sparse fossil record. 'The fossil record everywhere, not just in Florida, is lacking the interval that the site is from,' Rachel Narducci, vertebrate paleontology collections manager at the Florida Museum and coauthor of a study of the site published Nov. 15 in the journal Fossil Studies, said in the statement. One of the key discoveries are fossils from an extinct giant armadillo-like creature called Holmesina. Within this genus, scientists knew that there was a transition from a species that lived two million years ago, the 150-pound H floridanus, to H. septentrionalis, which reached a whopping 475 pounds — but there was little evidence of how the change in size occurred. 'It's essentially the same animal, but through time it got so much bigger and the bones changed enough that researchers published it as a different species,' Narducci said. The fossils from the Steinhatchee River offer a snapshot of this evolutionary change, as the study revealed ankle and foot bones that match the size of the later, larger Holmesina species while retaining features of their smaller ancestors. 'This gave us more clues into the fact that the anatomy kind of trailed behind the size increase," Narducci said. "So they got bigger before the shape of their bones changed.' One intriguing specimen found at the site was the skull of an ancient tapir — a pig-shaped mammal with a short elephant-like trunk. Puzzlingly, the skull had lots of features not seen in the fossil record before, leading the researchers to consider whether the specimen might belong to a previously unknown species. However, Richard Hulbert, lead author of the study, cautioned against making that leap just yet. 'We need more of the skeleton to firmly figure out what's going on with this tapir,' he said in the statement. 'It might be a new species. Or it always could just be that you picked up the oddball individual of the population.' RELATED STORIES —Giant horned dinosaur's fossils were destroyed in WWII — but photos reveal it was an unknown species —'Alien plant' fossil discovered near Utah ghost town doesn't belong to any known plant families, living or extinct —'I knew they were something special': New York homeowner discovers mastodon jaw fossils in backyard Among the 552 fossils recovered, about 75 percent belong to an early species of caballine horses — the subgroup that includes modern domestic horses. Horses tend to dwell on large expanses of grassland rather than dense forests such as those that occupy the Big Bend region today. Since horses make up such a large chunk of the fossils discovered at Steinhatchee River, the researchers concluded that the site area may have once been more open and grassy. Horse teeth were some of the best preserved fossils in the sinkhole. 'For the first time, we had individuals that were complete enough to show us upper teeth, lower teeth and the front incisors of the same individual,' Richard Hulbert, lead author of the paper, said in the statement. With wear and tear still visible on the teeth, researchers may be able to study the horses' diet in unprecedented detail.
Yahoo
18-02-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Prehistoric 'Graveyard' Uncovered In Florida Sinkhole
A remarkable collection of fossils has been unearthed in Florida after a sinkhole swallowed a group of animals. 500,000 years ago, a group of armadillo-like mammals, horses, and sloths met their untimely end after plunging into a sinkhole in what is now the Big Bend region of Florida. For thousands of years, sediment concealed their remains - until two hobby fossil hunters made the discovery. In June 2022, Robert Sinibaldi and Joseph Branin were scouring the Steinhatchee River, hoping to stumble upon fossils. The conditions were far from ideal. "It's like diving in coffee," Sinibaldi admitted. After a fruitless search, Branin suddenly spotted something remarkable - a set of horse teeth. Digging deeper, the pair unearthed a hoof core, a tapir skull, and dozens more fossils -many in extraordinary condition. "It wasn't just quantity, it was quality," Sinibaldi recalled. "We knew we had an important site, but we didn't know just how important." Now, their find - 552 fossils in total - has been officially documented in a newly published scientific study. Palaeontologists at the Florida Museum of Natural History in Gainesville quickly realised these fossils were no ordinary find. The remains belonged to a period known as the middle Irvingtonian North American land mammal age, a crucial but little-understood stage of the Pleistocene Ice Age. "The fossil record is missing data from this time period - not just in Florida, but everywhere," said Rachel Narducci, a vertebrate palaeontology collections manager at the museum. Until now, only one other site in Florida had produced fossils from this obscure era. The Steinhatchee River itself likely played a role in exposing the bones, shifting its course over thousands of years until it eroded the ancient sinkhole, washing the fossils into the fossils provide a rare glimpse into how certain Ice Age creatures evolved over time. Among them is Holmesina, a now-extinct genus of giant armadillo-like mammals.
Yahoo
13-02-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
500,000 years ago, a bunch of animals fell into a Florida sink hole
Roughly half a million years ago, a group of armadillo-like mammals, horses, and sloths met their end in a sinkhole in what would become Florida. That sinkhole in the state's wooded Big Bend region filled with sediment over the next 500,000 years, until two hobby fossil hunters came along. In June 2022, Robert Sinibaldi and Joseph Branin were combing the riverbed for fossils in the murky waters of the Steinhatchee River. 'It's like diving in coffee,' Sinibaldi said in a statement. After not having much luck, Branin looked down and saw what appeared to be horse teeth. They continued searching and eventually found a hoof core and a tapir skull, and more fossils–many in near-pristine condition. 'It wasn't just quantity, it was quality,' Sinibaldi said. 'We knew we had an important site, but we didn't know how important.' The 552 fossils from prehistoric Florida are described in a study recently published in the journal Fossil Studies. The pair shared their findings with the Florida Museum of Natural History in Gainesville. The museum's paleontologists determined the fossils were preserved during an obscure period of the Pleistocene ice ages called the middle Irvingtonian North American land mammal age. 'The fossil record everywhere, not just in Florida, is lacking the interval that the site is from — the middle Irvingtonian North American land mammal age,' Rachel Narducci, vertebrate paleontology collections manager at the Florida Museum and a study co-author, said in a statement. Before this discovery, there had only been one other site in the Sunshine State with fossils from the middle Irvingtonian. During this time period, the Steinhatchee River likely followed a different course when the fossils were preserved. As it meandered over the next several thousand years, the river got closer to the sinkhole. Eventually, the river likely eroded into the former pit and rinsed the fossils. This left them exposed along the riverbed. While paleontologists don't have too many fossils dating back to the middle Irvingtonian, they have plenty from the time periods before and after. From this fossil record, it appears that some species from the early Pleistocene went extinct, while others show up for the first time in the late Pleistocene. There are also some species that went through physical changes during this evolutionary gap, including of the now-extinct genus Holmesina. These plated animals resemble modern armadillos, but were significantly larger. When Holmesina floridanus first appeared two million years ago, individual animals were around 150 pounds. By comparison, most modern armadillos are between eight and 20 pounds, with the largest weighing 132 pounds at the most. Over time, these creatures became larger until a new species–Holmesina septentrionalis–reached around 475 pounds. [ Related: Early humans butchered enormous armadillos. ] 'It's essentially the same animal, but through time it got so much bigger and the bones changed enough that researchers published it as a different species,' Narducci said. These new fossils offer a rare look into how this process took place. Ankle and foot bones match the size of the larger H. septentrionalis species, while also having features of the older and smaller H. floridanus species. 'This gave us more clues into the fact that the anatomy kind of trailed behind the size increase. So, they got bigger before the shape of their bones changed,' said Narducci. Three-quarters of the fossils recovered so far at this site in the Steinhatchee River site belong to an early species of the subgroup of living horses. This group includes both the domestic horse and its wild relatives. 'That gives us a good sample size to measure or make comparisons, and it also tells us a little bit about the environment,' Richard Hulbert, a study co-author and retired Florida Museum vertebrate paleontology collections manager, said in a statement. The sizable collection of horse fossils here suggests that the area was once a more open expanse because horses are adapted for life in open area today is a dense woodland and more forest-dwelling animals including deer and mastodon would be present if it had been similarly covered in trees at this time. 'What was great about the horses from this site is, for the first time, we had individuals that were complete enough to show us upper teeth, lower teeth and the front incisors of the same individual,' Hulbert said. Additional collection at this site will likely be slow and ongoing due to the logistical challenges in excavating an ancient underwater sinkhole. However, the team is hopeful about the discoveries to come.
