1926 Article From "Venice News"

1926 Article From "Venice News". . "It's a mammoth," voiced Dr. J. W. Gidley, Paleontologist of the Smithsonian Institute, 15 minutes after he first saw the fossil tusks and jaw bone of the prehistoric monster found in Venice. The size of the tusks indicates that it probably stood 14 feet high and was probably 20 feet long. Found at the same time were bones of horses, bison, mastodon, sloths and camels., "A fair estimate of the date when this mammoth perished would be about half a million years ago," Dr. Gidley said. The beasts lived in the Pleistocene Age which was the last geologic era preceding modern times. It lasted about a million years and ended about 25,000 years ago. In the Pleistocene era, Florida was thickly inhabited by many varieties of gigantic beasts., Dr. Gidley said Florida had periods when the peninsula was higher above water than it is now, and other periods when parts of the state were lower or completely covered by the sea. But there is no doubt that most of what is now Florida has been above water since early geological periods, say fifty million years.