DISCOVERIES
Above, The bone was on display at the Vero Beach Museum of Art Feb. 15-
22. Below, this close-up shows the etching.
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The Old Vero Ice Age Sites committee, supported by the
Cultural Council and Historical Society in Indian River
County, partnered with the Florida Humanities Council to
bring information on the bone and the ancient history of Vero
Beach to the public through the panel presentation and a “Fossil
Road Show.”
Other experts who weighed in on the authenticity of the
bone and its etching are Dr. Richard Hulbert, paleontologist
with the University of Florida, and Dr. Thomas Stafford,
president of Stafford Research Laboratories in Lafayette, Colo.
Hulbert and his UF colleagues used a mass spectrometer to
compare the bone with others collected in Vero. “It matched,”
Hulbert says, “so it did not come from the Old World. Prior
to this discovery it is well established that humans arrived in
North America including Florida about 12 to 13,000 years
ago … . A few fossils with abstract markings (such as zigzag
lines) made by man had been found, but this is the first realistic
drawing.”
The drawing would have been made by an object harder
ED DRONDOSKI
than the bone itself, Stafford says, possibly “chert, obsidian, flint, quartzite
or (something) of similar hardness.” Stafford was involved in the Rare Earth
Analysis of the find. “Because the bone was found in Florida, it is likely the
animal is a Columbian mammoth ... . It could also be mastodon, which is actually
more common in Florida than mammoths,” he says. “However, no one
knows what species the bone represents. DNA or protein analyses could help
with this determination, but the hot temperatures and high rainfall in Florida
preclude recovering DNA except under extremely rare conditions.’’
The future of the bone is uncertain at this time, although it is scheduled to
go to auction this spring. Kennedy doesn’t know where his find will end up,
but when it has been sold, he plans to move closer to his family in Alabama
and see what treasures the Alabama soil might be willing to surrender.